Understuck
by jojotier
Summary: In a bid to free the entirety of the Underground across all timelines, Gaster locks the Homestuck Gods out of their universe, kidnaps Dave, and then leaves Frisk in his place. Now Dave, reduced down to a child, must navigate the Underground while his friends try desperately to work against the slow unwinding of the old universe as time itself begins collapsing around them.
1. Prologue: The Fall into Wonderland

**_A/N:_** _Welcome to the prologue of this little story! I say 'little', but at the time these first two chapters go up, I will have already written about 80k+ words for this. Subsequent chapters will go up over the next few weeks, but if you don't want to wait, check out my Ao3 account to see all of what I've written already up!_

 _I hope you enjoy!_

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 _ **= = = } DAVE: Examine the Door.**_

And yes, that Door had to be capitalized, because as it just so happened, this shit was about as important as the cinematic climax of an Indiana Jones flick, complete with soundtrack and flying boulders galore. It's a wonder that nothing has come through the Door and declared that all this was some fucked up trap that you would have to go through.

Your name is DAVE STRIDER, and you are staring at the door that's supposed to take you to a new universe, which you just happen to be one of the Gods of.

If you were to say that you aren't at least a little bit nervous, that wouldn't really be the truth. Sure, you might _try_ to tell yourself that it is, and that you're just fine, thank you very much, but Rose wouldn't allow that. You'd probably only needed to think it and then bam, Rose would suddenly be there faster than a starving bloodhound with a nose for inner turmoil, telling you flatly not to do that, that bottling up your emotions isn't something that was healthy and is something that you need to work on fixing. To appease your sister, you'd just told her that you'd work on it, jesus, no need to get on your damn case. Then that would be the end of that shit.

You look around yourself, at the people that are there. Miraculously, you and all the other humans survived. Even your brother-and-sort-of-father is there, in those stupid poofy princely pantaloons of his, looking towards the Door that would lead everyone to the universe frog that Jade had made. To the right, of course, are the trolls.

At least, the trolls that ended up surviving that maelstrom of bullshit that happened on the meteor.

Karkat is standing there yelling at John, as high strung as he normally is, with Terezi and Vriska snickering over his shoulders, twin Cheshire Cats who look like they just caught an entire flock of birds instead of just one measly canary. Kanaya's there, holding your ecto-sister's hand as casually as could be while also looking so fluffy and mushy with her that it makes you gag internally. You can literally feel all of your teeth rotting out of your mouth. No vitamin C can save your gums from this onslaught of romantic bullshit.

Then you have Jade talking to Calliope and Roxy, really chatting it up like a couple of really excited canaries that somehow got away from the Sapphic Sisters' sharp toothed jaws, and then there's Jake hanging around the fridge that still held the clownfucker with your brother and the Mayor, who seemed adamant on showing them how to make a suitable Town Hall that any can could enjoy. Good on him, the little dude, good on him.

Really though, that left the question of why the hell isn't anyone doing anything?

Okay sure, you've all just gotten through the final battle, and yeah you're pretty tired and you sort of want to sleep for the next millennia, but ultimately the Door is there. You all could just _go_ , right now, and get through it, get into your new universe and chill out as the Gods of everything. No extra waiting needed, not for you all. And frankly, you've all waited for long enough. Paradox space is honestly worse than the DMV, and since that in and of itself was an accomplishment. You sort of don't want to break up the touching reunions and all, especially since until just a few moments ago you were having them yourself, but you are honestly itching so badly to get through this shit that it isn't even funny.

Besides, it's not as if you're too happy to be here, where all that fighting and shit that you hate used to be. You want to honestly forget all of that shit. Even for a little while.

 _ **= = = } DAVE: Notice the Door opening behind you.**_

What?

The thing that you hear next is a small _creak_ coming from the Door that you just so happen to be standing in front of, back to it so that you can watch all of your friends. Terezi is the first one to notice something, probably sniffing it out with that keen snout of hers, and before long Rose's head snaps towards your direction too, eyes slowly widening as she let go of Kanaya's hand, using it to latch onto one needlewand as the other raises to point.

You think that she says something, maybe something along the lines of, "Behind you!" but you don't get the chance to see it clearly. As your head turns, you catch a glimpse of a black mass there, one with a white face. You have no time to react. And even if you did, what the hell would you do? This is something from the universe that you all created- this is one of your creations, technically, and it's apparently strong enough to open up this literal Door to the Void.

You have no time to react as a skeletal hand clamps over your mouth and drags you back, through the Door.

 ** _= = = } ALICE: Fall into Wonderland_**

Your name is still Dave Strider, and while you may not be falling into any Wonderland, you sure as hell are still _fucking falling._

You didn't even know the Door would lead to this. You just thought that this would maybe lead you into the world, on solid ground, not drop you from what feels like a few stories up high into some dark abyss below. You can't make anything out in the darkness- you just keep falling, and the worst part of it all is, no matter how much you fucking try, you can't even bring up the energy within yourself to float, or maybe to fly up to the point where you were dropped from.

There's something falling down with you, and you realize belatedly that it has the weirdest fucking face, white and cracked, like a shattered mask with a grin, or maybe like a fractured skull. It's literally the weirdest fucking thing, and coupled with the feeling of falling endlessly into nothing it's like you can't even breathe. Those old commercials with the people on them, advertising heart attack meds and showing visuals of having an elephant sitting on their chests did fuck all in this situation. It's like an entire zoo has taken up residence on your body, pressing down with the force of a hundred stinking animals and children screaming and throwing tantrums. When the feeling of things pressing inwards, as if you are being compressed in on yourself, starts you know for a damn _fact_ that this shit not only takes the cake, but is probably selling it illegally on the black market with a side of your kidneys.

Then, your back is hitting against something, and everything goes black.

 ** _= = = } KARKAT: Try to remain calm about the situation._**

How the FUCK are you supposed to remain calm like this?!

Your name is KARKAT VANTAS, and the worst possible thing just happened. You honestly shouldn't be really surprised at this point- the entirety of existence is dedicated to shoving seven rusty machetes down your protein shoot, so why the fuck would you be? This shit just isn't something that should be able to fly.

Right now, all of you are on an empty platform, with no Door to be seen. Dave was just spirited away to fuck knows where by some liquid skeleton creature before the Door to your new universe, the one you and your friends have been fucking working towards for sweeps, is gone.

And the kicker?

There's a fucking human child in a stupid striped sweater where the Door was.


	2. Part 1: A New World of Determination

**_= = = } Be the Fallen Human_**

Unfortunately, that just isn't possible, because even though you've reset hundreds of times before in your search to find the Happy Ending for everyone, this time, you aren't the Fallen Human. That title is being given to... someone else.

Your name is FRISK. You WERE the Fallen Human- you've been through the Underground thousands of times, knowing exactly what would happen every time with all of those monsters you've come to regard as family. Despite this, though, now something new has happened. You aren't just the Fallen Human this time. In fact, you didn't even fall into this world. You were so close to a reset, too, when there was a man.

You don't know what he said to you, since his hands moved in a blur and you can't sign that fast, but he took you away and stripped you of the power to reset. In a way, it's a bit of a relief. You can't keep searching forever, after all, no matter how much you truly want to.

It keeps you from what you thought about doing.

But now you're stuck, thrust through some door onto a platform and left there with others. There are a lot in this crowd of people- and it sort of scares you, especially the amount of humans that are here. You know that humans can be kind, but at the same time, you know exactly what they're capable of. And why on Earth are there so many here, looking so strange too, in funny pajamas that sort of suit them but were also so brightly colored? Then, though, your eyes are drawn from the seven humans to the five other creatures with them.

You have never seen creatures like these before! They're even more different from the monsters that you saw in the Underground, and they all seem to be the same species. All with grey skin, horns, and black hair. You wonder if they're actually a kind of monster too, all related in some way, like Napstablook and his ghost cousins. You aren't really given much time to ponder over every question that is popping into your head (like just _what_ is that creature in a Mayor's sash?), because after a moment, one of the new creatures there begins to absolutely panic, in such an explosive way that you're surprised he doesn't start throwing spears.

"What the FUCK?" This one is shorter than most here, stocky, with a nice fluffy sweater. You really like his taste in fashion already, though you clap your hands over your ears politely. Toriel wouldn't want you hearing those words- even if she occasionally accidentally let them slip out herself. "There's a GODDAMN HUMAN GRUB here?! The Door's gone, _Dave's_ gone, motherfucking-!"

One of the other creatures- monsters?- like him clamps a hand over his mouth. She's pretty, with a long red skirt that flows to her ankles and short hair. She also seems to be a small giantess among them, because she's taller than all of the humans and other grey skinned monsters there, with long limbs and a slender frame. For a moment, you expect to hear some sarcastic commentary from the small spirit who often follows you along on your adventures, but no- even the child with rosy cheeks can't hop through magic doors, it seems. The tall horned figure gives you a sheepish little smile, and you can see the humans there, murmuring between themselves, and two of the new creatures are whispering, heads held together so they can hear better.

All of this is making you nervous. You know what it's like to be stared at a lot, sure; after all, you were on Mettaton's shows, and you always made sure to sing with Shyren. But you don't like this kind of attention. They all don't really know what to do with you, and it's a little scary to think about the possibility of the humans there being awful.

So of course, your first instinct is to move to your feet and walk towards the creatures who aren't human. The tall one in the red skirt seems surprised, intrigued even, and a human in pretty orange pajamas looks to her with raised eyebrows. The two grey girls, one with a strange left eye and the other with red shades, stops and look over to you, seemingly just as confused as everyone else is. You aren't going to them though, not yet. You're going to the one who wants to curse up a storm, the one who is distraught.

He really isn't very tall, but you're still a child, so really you come up to his stomach, but you reach up and try to pat him. You watch as he sort of freezes, bristling up as his pupils seem to narrow into slits. He's looking to his other friends, and the one with the skirt looks at him sternly. No cussing, you guess the look says.

Then you hear the human in orange suggest, "Karkat, why don't you pick them up?" The boy- Karkat, you now know- looks startled. Much like a cat, now that you think about it. Karkat really is a name that suits him! Karkat looks down at you for a few moments before picking you up. He does it by the armpits, holding you away from himself like you're some strange disease or a new thing that he can't identify. You simply reach out and pat him.

He looks oddly at you for a moment, and your arm is sort of getting tired from how far you have to stretch, but thankfully that alleviates when he pulls you a little closer, inspecting you, squinting a bit. "The hell are you doing?"

You pat his cheeks and hair, and find that his hair is as soft as a kitten's. You may not have seen any of those in the Underground, but you're glad that you found something similar to that out here. You'll have to tell Catty and Bratty about this- they would love to meet this strange new person.

"Stop it." You don't stop, but he is looking remarkably more relaxed around you than before, and that's good. "God fucking dammit…" He just sighs, and you finally do stop, looking around to the others. The human in orange seems bemused, staying very close to the horned woman in the red skirt, even though she's about a foot taller than her, leaning on her slightly. The ones in beige and dark blue seem excited, and with the blonde hair and pink eyes of one and the chubby frame of the other, you're reminded of Bratty and Catty. The one with the silly poofy pants doesn't really have an expression on his face, which is kind of unnerving, and the one with no pants on (did he forget to put them on this morning?) was grinning wide. You could have sworn that there was a seventh human, but it seems that they've disappeared somehow. The one in blue seems just confused.

The two grey girls who sort of look like sisters just kind of watch you carefully. You figure that you'd be safe enough with the strange new monsters here and turn back to Karkat, signing, _Hello!_

He just stares at you for a second, not really comprehending, before saying, "Well fuck, I don't know sign language." The others look a bit surprised, and then the strange black shelled creature, who looks more like a normal monster than any of those here, moves over to where you are and tugs on Karkat's sweater. They're even smaller than him, and they're hopping up so excitedly too! You like this "Mayor" character already.

Then, they holds out a piece of purple chalk, just the color of the stripes on your sweater, and you understand what they're suggesting. Write. No one here seems to know ASL, so you will have to just write what you mean to say to them.

You look at Karkat and point to the ground, and he lets you down, not really dropping you and pulling his hands away awkwardly. You go over to the little monster, take the chalk, settle down on the ground, and then write. / _Thank you for the chalk!_ / The Mayor seems to be pleased by their contribution, clapping their hands and sitting back to watch.

You look up as the human with pink eyes comes, crouching down near you, though not too close. You are certainly thankful for the space. "Well hey there, cutiepie! Now, I'm just curious- what's a sweet little thing like you doing here?" You knew a question like this would come up.

/ _The man who doesn't exist normally brought me here. I was resetting./_

"Resetting what?" comes the voice of the orange clad human, and you think that she and the one with pink eyes may be related. They certainly look similar- like mother and daughter. You aren't sure if you can explain, exactly, so for now you simply write, / _Not sure how to explain. It's a very long story. Longer than most stories, anyway./_

The boy in blue pads up, and you shift away, because he is _very_ close to you and you never know when a fight might start. Even monsters in the underground who didn't want to fight you, like poor Whimsum and Shyren, could stumble into a fight unwittingly. You really don't want to get into a fight so soon out of the Underground. He says, "Hey, kid! I'm not sure if you know this, but we're all pretty used to long stories. It can't be any longer than Aranea's, haha. But… could we know your name? Kinda better than calling you kid." That's easily done, and you write, / _I am Frisk_./

"Frisk." The human with the strange pointy sunglasses is there in the blink of an eye, and he's sort of unnerving, especially with such a grave expression on his face. You don't like how serious he looks. It makes you think that something bad has happened, something awful, like someone died. For him, it could be true, and you don't like that thought. No one deserves to lose anyone. The male speaks, looking down at you, "There was someone else pulled through the Door, by this man you're talking about. Do you have any idea what might have happened to him?"

You try to think for a moment. You can remember some of what the man had signed, though it's only in snatches, since he signed so very fast, almost faster than your eyes could see. You think you remember some of what he said to you, and you look up at this human before looking down to the ground of this platform and writing, / _Yet again, this is a very long story, but I can explain it. The short version of it is this-/_

 _/Whoever was pulled through the door is now the Fallen Human_./

 ** _= = = } Be the Fallen Human_**

Your name is DAVE STRIDER, and all you know is, your back hurts like a bitch.

When your eyes finally blink open, you have to squint them, because the sunlight streaming from above is both unexpected and also jamming knives into your eyeballs and gently scooping them out with an ice cream scooper to be served with whipped cream and a cherry on top. Your eyes close against the light, because fuck, you are not used to that. You've only felt sunlight in dreambubbles over the last three years, and of course the occasional time when you've had to step out into the rays of the Green Sun, but even then, this all seems so… weird. This is normal Earth sunlight.

You slowly sit up, and you can see what you landed on. There's a large patch of buttercups around you, normal Earth flowers that are so alien and out of place to you that you have to stare. You've never seen flowers in real life, not when you were in the apartment with Bro, and especially not in the steaming Satanic asshole that was LOHAC. You don't really remember if you saw them on LOFAF, since you kind of died there and were mostly focused on frog hunting, but the point still stands.

You feel around for where your shades could have gone, because besides making you look like the badass motherfucker that you are, they sort of protect your eyes against all of the sunlight that is currently threatening to set them on fire and make your head spontaneously combust. The bright yellow flowers in front of your face really aren't helping matters, that's for fucking sure.

You eventually find your shades and put them right back on your nose, thankfully making every bright color there a bit dimmer and more bearable on those red eyes of yours. Just as you're getting up, your fingers brush against the hilt of your sword. You wonder where the hell that came from- it hasn't been out of your strife specibus in a while, so why are you suddenly finding it right here? All you do is mutter, "The hell…?" to yourself before standing up straighter. Your voice sounds weird as hell. It's higher than normal, and not at all at a falsetto as you speak, so you wonder why that suddenly is. Was it pollen inhalation? Okay, whatever, time to take inventory on all of this shit.

"I'm in a fucking hole. Lovely." You grumble to yourself, because while you're not nervous in the fucking least, you'd rather be able to hear some sound other than the flowers moving around you, "God dammit." You look up again towards the sunlight, and the way you figure, you could probably just float out and see what there is to see. You do what you normally do when you want to fly- you just sort of think to yourself, 'wow flying would sure be nice right now'. Normally, it works and you're floating, but instead, you're just kind of up on your toes and straining upwards.

"What the actual _fuck_." spills out of your mouth, because god dammit, you aren't able to fly. Did walking through that Door take away your sweet godly abilities? You don't want to believe it, but it's a possibility. You stop trying, figuring that you probably look fucking stupid, and look around yourself. This hole looks fucking enormous, and you almost don't notice the path as you turn in a slow circle. Almost. You do notice the path, and since there's no Door to be found and no way up, the only thing you can really do is go down it.

You walk through the small patch of flowers and move onto the dirt, watching shit get dimmer than a Victoria's Secret trying to set the ambience for people getting their frilly underwear and way overpriced bras. Dads would be trying to just get through everything, trooping through battlefields of lacey cloth to just get through it all with minimal scarring. You walk through, imagining Jane's dad trying to awkwardly do it and get in and out and you actually have to work at suppressing the smile that threatens to come up. Nope, gotta keep up the poker face- besides, you look fucking stupid when you smile.

You soon come to a place where there's another bit of light, and then you have to stop. A flower just pops up through the ground, a big one too, one that's reaching up to about your waist. And then the flower is fucking talking.

"Howdy!"

Well that sure as hell is a thing.

All you can do is watch for a moment before saying, "Well, fuck. I'm hopped up on something. This ain't just some Alice in Wonderland shit- I'm literally being accosted by a talking goddamn flower. Did that skeletal fuck put a happy paper on my tongue while I was passed out or what? What's next, are the dancing pink elephants gonna come out too? Are we just gonna be making this a full on Disney crossover of drugs and hallucinations?"

The flower kind of stares at you for a moment, with this weird look on its face, kind of blank but at the same time way too happy. Then it just keeps on talking as if you haven't said a word. "Well anyway! I'm Flowey! Flowey the Flower! Hm… You're new to the Underground, arentcha?"

"Wow, what would give you that impression?" You ask, sarcastically as always. After all, it's probably pretty obvious, especially since you yourself are in no way a talking flower. Sure you might have some pollen stuck to your bare legs, but you have no petals or dainty shit in sight. Though, the sight of your bare legs reminds you of something. Where the cocksucking hell is your cape? That's just disappeared, apparently along with your long pants, because now you're wearing shorts with a long sleeved sweater. What kind of fashion choice was that? Fuck that, you needed some sweatpants or something, because unnervingly enough, your legs aren't littered with as many scars as before. What the fuck.

"Golly, you must be so confused!" Hell yeah you're confused. A talking flower that's tall enough to reach up to your waist and bite is literally talking to you. If you were still a kid, stranger danger would be all over this situation. "Someone ought to teach you how things work around here! I guess little ol' me will have to do!" You wonder vaguely how this little shit will be doing that, because for some reason you really, really don't trust this situation. You don't trust most situations, to be fair, but this is some straight up bullshit. "Ready? Here we go!"

What happens next is the weirdest thing. You look around, and suddenly there's this fucking _box_ around you. Flowey is right in front of you, in his own little box, smiling that blank smile of his. This shit looks like the weirdest game mechanics you've ever seen, and that's saying something since in Sburb you could literally see gaming abstractions like health bars and grist. Then, you see the red heart in front of you, branded with the Time symbol that probably still has some significance, even there on this thing. "See that heart?" Flowey asks, and you hold yourself back from giving the answer of yes you see the heart, you're not fucking blind, "That is your SOUL, the very culmination of your being! Your SOUL starts off weak, but can grow strong if you gain a lot of LV." You're pretty sure that floating red heart there isn't your soul, or if it is, it probably should be… Out of your chest. This is all fucking weird.

"What does LV stand for?" You're about to say 'level', the most obvious shit, when the plant bastard just keeps going. "Why, LOVE, of course! You want your LOVE to grow, right…?" The flower trails off, and then the smile drops off of his face. Fucking finally. You were getting tired of that phony shit. Then though, the flower has this look on his face, like you're something different. Something that leaves a bad taste in his mouth. "Hey, kid… where'd you get all that LOVE? That's more than you can get, even in the Underground, if you…"

Flowey's face twists into something else, melting and reforming into a large smile that reminds you of those monsters you see in storybooks, with the giant gaping mouths, but this thing has human like teeth. That's pretty fucked up, and then, you and that heart that you guess is a soul are surrounded by bullets. "Hey, Flowey, what the actual fuck? Cool it with the bullets man. I don't want to be pumped full of holes- I'm not some goddamn cheese."

"You know EXACTLY what's going on." Flowey says, voice distorted, the high and happy tone being replaced with some growly, garbled shit, "You know how it is! Why else would your LOVE already be at 30? No, no- you understand the law of this world. You can try to hide it by using that innocent child shtick, but there's no denying it. It's KILL or BE KILLED." The bullets are getting closer, forming a tight circle around you, and you try to reach inwards and pull on the Time powers that you know you have. You may not have learned the mechanics when it came to time traveling, but you did at least take it upon yourself to learn how to at least slow down and speed up time around yourself. But nothing happens- the bullets don't stop.

Instead, they get suddenly faster, and they hit your soul, and you honestly can't understand the pain that's spreading throughout your whole body. It's like being shot up again, back on LOFAF, with Jack in front and behind you, leaving you bloody. But this time, there's no blood. Just dozens of bullets that you can't see, and the flower's laughing, but you can't get to him with your sword. Then, suddenly, it stops, and there's a ball of fire.

Flowey is blown away, and the box around you dissolves, leaving you free to turn. It… doesn't hurt anymore, surprisingly, and you're breathing hard, gripping onto the hilt of your sword just in case this new creature would try the same thing. That's when you see an enormous goat woman, and you suddenly think that Jade or Aradia would love this place. Jade always did have that thing with anthropomorphic fauna, and Aradia just really liked goats, so it makes perfect sense to you. Jade would eat her semi-furry little heart out. You're about to open your mouth, ask who the hell she is, but she beats you to the punch.

"Ah, do not be afraid, my child!" She smiles, and even though she's fucking enormous, tall enough so that you only come to her waist (even though you're starting to suspect that there's a different reason for why things are so fucking big, and it's definitely not a Honey I Shrunk the Kids situation), she actually seems… kind of nice. "My name is Toriel. I am the caretaker of the Ruins." She comes closer to you, clasping her furry hands together and smiling down at you, as if pleased. That's honestly a little fucking weird. "I come here every day to see if anyone has fallen down. You are the first human to have fallen in a long time." She pauses after that statement though, looking him over with a furrowed brow. You get your sword ready. Just in case. She shakes her head gently though, as if expelling a thought. "Well, in any case, my child- may I have your name?"

Okay, yeah, you can do that much. "The name's Dave. Dave Strider, resident Knight of Time, at your service." You contemplate doing some silly and frivolous thing, like bowing with your sword, but then deem it too childish.

Toriel seems to find what you say amusing though, smiling a bit and chuckling to herself. "Ah yes, a brave knight. I feel safer already, having such a warrior here to protect me." That irks you a bit, because she's talking to you as if you're a kid. Which, you realize, is probably the best explanation for why shit is bigger than it should be. Huh. That certainly is a thing, isn't it. You've just sort of de-aged. You're pulled from your thoughts as Toriel talks again. "Well then, Sir Knight, allow me to guide you through the catacombs." She turns and moves ahead, saying, "Come, my child- this way." You follow along after her, not really sure what you can say in this situation. For right now, you're still processing everything. So, to recap- a talking flower just tried to kill you, all because your LOVE was too high, apparently, before a giant goat woman appeared, saved you with fire powers, and now is leading you through some Ruins. You're also a child and can't use any of your God Tier abilities.

Even if this is sort of unnerving, you find that you're actually pretty okay with all of it. It's not that bad, in any case, and even then, you figure that it could be sort of fun, being a kid again. You kind of never got the chance to do that kind of shit with Bro around. Toriel is moving up some stairs, and as you look up, you see the shadow of the most purple ruins looming overhead. You're reminded of Derse, and that thought sort of surprises you, but then again, Derse was just as big and threatening. You move up to a point where there are red leaves, and you think you can see something shining in them.

You look up. The shadow of the Ruins looms overhead, like the towers of Derse used to do. Even though this place's pillars didn't reach up into the sky (or ceiling, or whatever the fuck happened there, in any case), you can't help the feeling running through your chest, smacking against your ribcage and acting like all the butterflies that normally reside in people's stomachs have flown up to avoid being digested in a brutal display.

One could say that you're filled with DETERMINATION.


	3. Part 2: Going to Toriel

**_= = = } DAVE: Get your head out of the clouds!_**

Wow, those thoughts you just had are kind of weird. Just where the hell did those thoughts about determination come from? It isn't as if there's much to be determined about, other than getting through these Ruins to whatever door leads you out and hopefully to some places that might have some information about the fucker who dragged you into this place.

You decide to just scrap this line of thought, because the giant goat- Toriel, that's what she said her name is- is waiting for you, watching with a bemused look. You can think about whatever weird, childish voice you heard in your head later, when you're alone and able to actually listen to yourself speak. You don't want to be seen as crazy by this monster woman, not so soon after you met her. You aren't sure what she would do to you then, but with her size and yours at the moment, you can definitely guess that it can cause real damage.

You follow after her, and she seems pleased enough to have you following her, which is weird. She keeps smiling at you, even though she doesn't really know you, which is also weird as fuck. You'd smile back, but you aren't really sure if that's an appropriate course of action, or if that would just break your cool facade or what. You are a kid again, after all, meaning that you'll have to work double time on maintaining optimum cool levels. After all, who suspected a kid in an oversized sweater to be anything cool? You've already lost enough points with your fashion, even though you didn't choose this at all. You'll have to find a new look. If you're lucky, maybe you'll just find some shit laying around. You simply pull your sweater down a bit and pause, thinking that maybe you heard a snort of laughter behind you.

You look, but there's nothing there. You guess that you're just imagining shit.

You seriously hope that this being a kid shit doesn't have any effects on your mental state. You really don't want to be throwing temper tantrums, especially since you're technically sixteen years old, and you sure as hell don't want to do some stupid childish shit that will cause you to get your ass kicked to the next calendar year, where you'd just be neck deep in horses. Fuck those things- those might have been Dirk's thing, but you weren't exactly a fan of big ass hellbeasts like those, that's for sure, especially hellbeasts that can cause more damage to your much softer body now that you're a little under four feet and haven't built up muscle yet, leaving your scrawny ass way too vulnerable. Gotta figure out a way to build up the patented Strider fortress again, make sure that you aren't quite as weak or easily hit.

You'll have to solve that entire issue with age shit later on. You might be able to scrape up some of the dredges of the god tier ability that's gone now, if there's some left, coffee grounds left over from the particularly horrible and bitter cup of fuck you that life just shoved down your throat. Maybe you can at least make yourself a few years older, to about when you were able to start scraping up enough food for yourself so that you aren't malnourished as shit.

The next room has a heavy stone door, just as purple as everything else, and Toriel walks over to some weird white pedestals in the floor. Then she steps on them in some pattern, and lo and behold, the door opens with a simple lever pull after that before you can properly think the words 'open sesame'. Toriel turns back to you and smiles, in that giddy little way that she has, saying, "Welcome to your new home, innocent one!" Innocent? You? You want to snort. God, if only she had seen some of the shit that you and Karkat had done back on the meteor, drawing all those dicks in Rose's book and watching those gross romcoms together. You are far from innocent. You don't mention that, though, instead letting her finish, "Allow me to educate you in the operations of the Ruins."

Oh God, this is all like the tutorial for a game, at least to Toriel.

When you realize, a few moments later, that Toriel's name is a goddamn pun, you want to shove your face into the purple stone blocks of the wall and groan into whatever black as shit void is inside of them. You don't want to interrupt this motherly figure, though, and besides, listening to her quietly is actually keeping you from doing some stupid and uncool shit like what you feel the urge to do.

"The Ruins are full of puzzles, ancient fusions between diversions and doorkeys. One must solve them to proceed from room to room." Why the hell are there even puzzles here in the first place? Does it have to do with some bullshit quest nonsense, like in Sburb? Is it to test people's wits or intelligence or whatever non sequitur thing that really can only help stall for time in a quest and make it longer? You seriously hope that there is an explanation for this other than some bullshit answer of 'maybe it's just how the world works'.

"Okay, but why the hell is this place filled with puzzles?" When you see Toriel's face shift, you suddenly regret the words that came out of your mouth. It's weird, because back with Bro, you never really got a stern look like what she's giving you. You usually got an even colder glare than usual before you got your ass kicked. You expect a hand to raise, but instead, she continues to look at you sternly, watching you carefully even as you take a small step back.

"My child," she says, and weirdly enough she doesn't sound that angry, "I would appreciate it if you did not use such language. It is not appropriate for you, yes? Now, as for why there are so many puzzles, there is a simple explanation for that."

That's weird. That's so fucked up. Her face is already softening, expression shifting from stern to a soft little smile that showed her fangs. It sort of makes you want to run the fuck away, get out of dodge, because the nice ones always end up hitting the worst and she's probably nothing short of a harpy out of hell. You'll have to be on guard for that, and not let whatever weird warmness in your heart (or is it soul?) distract you from it. To cover up the fact that you're currently on vigilance for the moment when she snaps, you say, "Then yeah, an explanation would be great, because normally the explanation consists of 'that's just how it f-, uh just goes'." Nice one, Strider, you just saved yourself from any wrath for now.

"No, I assure you, the reason these are here are for a very good one! Think back to any history lessons you might have had- after the war between humans and monsters, we were all driven here, Underground." Whoa whoa whoa, hold the goddamn phone. They were all just driven down here? You wonder what the hell would cause all of that. "We feared that the humans might come down through the seal and kill us, so we set these puzzles to impede their progress so that we could retreat farther down." And that seemed to conclude that explanation, which actually… makes a lot more sense than you would have thought. You thought that this was all going to be some shitty mechanic, but no, it has a part in the laws of this world.

"Alright. That makes sense." You cede, and she nods in quite a satisfied way, walking into the next room. You follow after her, and immediately find a few levers on the wall, two of which have bright yellow arrows pointing to them. Toriel seems to think that you apparently have the intelligence of a five year old, because she proceeds to carefully explain what the next puzzle is without even pausing to let you get a word in edgewise.

"To progress, you will need to trigger several switches." She smiles, moving ahead and over a small bridge while gesturing to the switches on the wall. "Do not worry, for I have labelled the ones that you need to flip." She smiles warmly at you and waits, and you take that as your cue to keep going.

You go to the first switch, and say, "Yep, you definitely did label them. I'm fairly sure that if there was a hole cut into the ceiling, they would be able to see this sh- stuff," You already feel like you're going to have a shit time remembering not to cuss in front of the giant goat monster, "from outer space. It's brighter than all the stars in the Milky Way and Andromeda, like several enormous stars just imploded in on themselves in a pretty small tract of the empty void of the universe." One switch is flipped, and then you move to flip the other, all while Toriel regards you with some look on her face. It's not really anything bad- fond, maybe. Kind of like how Karkat looks at all of his shitty romcoms.

"My child, how can you be a knight but also know how it is in the sky?" She sounds amused, and as you flip the switch, the spikes at the end of the room are down. You're about to answer her when she moves over to you, clapping her hands excitedly. "Ah, splendid! I am proud of you, little one. Let us move to the next room- perhaps you would also like to explain how a knight has gone to the stars to another friend." She moves on, and you pause for a few seconds.

That's so weird, and really, it's kind of… nice. All you really did was flip a couple of levers, which were already brightly labeled to begin with. It's not like you just created a universe (even though you sort of did) or survived being dropped ten stories from the rooftop during a strife, and even then, even during those times you were never told that someone was proud of you. You feel stupid, because right now, you want to smile, even though you really just did something mundane and even though you need to pull yourself out of the stupid wallowing that you keep slipping into. Somehow, you keep being drawn back to thoughts of how it was with Bro. Oh boo fucking hoo, you had a rough childhood and your biological daddy wasn't nice to you, so much so that it was abusive, big deal. You have bigger problems than that, problems that didn't need you to be thinking about that, especially since now it's over. Namely, getting out of here before what's-her-name completely flips the switch and goes harpy bitch on your ass.

You're pulled from your thoughts when Toriel pokes her head back into the room, looking at you worriedly. "My child? Is something the matter? Do you, perhaps, feel apprehensive about proceeding through this place?" And of course, contrary to any of your thoughts she seems for all the world to just be a worried little lady who's wondering why you haven't moved ahead yet. So of course, you start walking, shrugging a bit to forget all that stupid emotional baggage.

"Nah, it's cool. I just found, uh, a cool looking bug." That's a lie, but her smile is still sincere even as she nods, leading into the next room.

She turns to you, gesturing for you to step up to a training dummy. You don't remember seeing them often, since any on the meteor were swiftly and systematically destroyed with quick precision by any trolls training with them. "Now, as a human living in the Underground, monsters may wish to attack you. You will need to be prepared for this situation. However, worry not! The process is simple. When you encounter a monster, you will enter a fight." Well, now we're talking. This shit is what you know. This is the shit you're good at. In fact, you could even say that you are the shit when it comes down to fighting. You hate it, sure, but at least now you're at a familiar subject. Besides, what does it matter if you wreck another monster? You squeeze your hand around the hilt of your sword, when Toriel suddenly throws a high arcing curveball that completely swerves away from you with no intention of ever knocking against your noggin.

"While you are in a fight, strike up a friendly conversation! Stall for time, and I shall come to resolve the conflict."

What?

You stare at Toriel for a moment, because there's no way in hell that shit actually works. If something comes after you, if a monster comes for your throat and is ready to rip into it, you need to be ready to slice them into ribbons so that they don't try again. That was drilled into you from day one, and pounded into your skull with a jackhammer during Sburb after that fight with Union Jack. You may try to be a pacifist, but ultimately, that has to fail sometime, right? There's always going to be at least someone who's going to be determined enough to want you dead. But then again, you guess that this is a good thing?

Finally, you actually have a choice here. You don't have to go in guns blazing like normal. So when Toriel gently instructs you with the words, "Practice talking to the dummy." you actually loosen your grip on your sword. You know the dummy can't hurt you anyway, and even then, you can afford to humor Toriel on this. You can afford to be a pacifist in this case and not completely dismantle the thing.

You look at the dummy and then suddenly, it's like that entire situation with Flowey and those boxes, except this time, there are four floating buttons in front of you. FIGHT, ACT, ITEM, and MERCY all flash a bright yellow at you, and you think you know what the fight button does already. You don't need that tutorial. The Mercy and Act buttons, though, those are new. Back in Sburb, it was always a fight or flight situation- you either killed the hell out of those imps and ogres or you let yourself die.

You still aren't entirely sure about all this shit, but you press the Act button, and then there's the option to talk or check out this thing. You sort of want to get this over with, though. The way that Toriel is watching this battle from the sidelines, looking at you expectantly with that weird smile on her face is sort of freaky, and the sooner you get it all over with the better, in your opinion. You just choose to talk, saying a quick hey. _It doesn't seem much for conversation_ , and you're about to agree with that when you realize that there was a voice that you would be agreeing with in the first place, what the fuck.

As the box dissolves and you look around yourself, looking for whatever little shit was messing with you at that time, you suddenly realize that you had a totally sweet rap that you could have belted out then. Shit, next time, what you need to do is rap at the thing. You'll have to keep this in mind if she gives you another dummy that she wants you to pacify into submission. You're torn from your thoughts when she says, in such a goddamn sincere way that it actually makes your heart ache, "Very good! You are very good, my child."

She walks on to the next room, and wow the way that she calls you 'good' shouldn't make your chest feel all weird and tingly. This isn't some fucked up porno- you should feel pissed to be referred to as good, because fuck that noise, you're Dave Strider. You are the epitome of cool.

Even then, you're following after, even letting yourself get closer to her. Fuck, she's what any kid would want- sweet as an apple pie left out in the sun too long and patient as any exasperated parent with a wailing two year old might be, always there and offering encouragement and praise that would make anyone embarrassed. Even as she hums, musing aloud, "I wonder if you can solve this puzzle?" it's all with this fondness, like she actually wants to be around the little shits that all children were.

Of course you're quick to reply to her, because you don't want to tip her off to anything that you're thinking about. "Yeah, I can solve this all pretty easily. What d'ya think this is, "let's play Earthbound with junior in the womb"? I could totally get this." You look along the ground and, weirdly enough, the dirt in that area is lighter than normal. You guess that probably has some significance, and that's confirmed when you look at a piece of paper on the wall, saying that the next room is that other room's blueprint. Toriel stands guard near that bed of spikes while you jog back quickly and have a look, and then you're back, totally able to get through this. "Yeah, I got this. Just let me go ahead through here, and then we'll be fine.

Toriel is about to move, but hesitates, looking down at you for a moment before saying, "I'm sure you see that this is the puzzle, but… Well, take my hand for a moment." She really doesn't really give you too much of a choice, because already her hand closes around yours in this really gentle way, like she's afraid that she'll break all the bones in your body if she presses down with even one pinky. You want to say, newsflash, you don't have glass bones and paper skin or break your arms and legs every day, so she can lay off on the handholding. You may look eight, but you really aren't, and even if you _were_ eight you still wouldn't need to be coddled like this because you're made of tougher stuff than that.

You don't say that. Instead, you follow her through the spikes and stay close to her, just in case.

When you make it on the other side, she looks down at you, still holding your hand even as she says, "My apologies, my little knight, but it appears that even puzzles like this are a little too dangerous for now. Perhaps when you are just a tad older." She squeezes your hand, as if trying to reassure you, before letting go and then walking on, leaving you to just stand there for a moment and try to reason with yourself, because there's no way in fucking hell that it's this easy. There's always a catch- your biological mother is technically your age, for instance, your brother stopped doing this when you were five and needed to train.

You still haven't figured out just what this goat woman's angle is, or if there isn't one, how the universe is going to fuck you up the ass with sharpened icicles and end up making this situation hell for you. You don't linger this time, not like the last time- you don't want Toriel to get too worried, after all- but even then, you really can't shake off a thought that's sort of bubbling up under your skin.

Why the hell do you want to call Toriel "mom"?

You look up at Toriel and she says, looking as proud as a goddamn pet owner at the Westminster Dog Show, "You have done excellently thus far, my child. I would expect nothing less of a knight, of course, but even the bravest might have some trouble with the request that I have. I'm afraid that what I ask of you will be difficult." She looks nervous now, and this is it, this is exactly what you were waiting for. The catch. The "difficult thing" that life was going to shove right down your throat. You aren't even sure why you let yourself be phased at all by any of this. You should have just spent more time preparing yourself.

Instead Toriel says, "I would like you to walk to the end of this room by yourself. Forgive me for this." Well, that certainly was a thing. That wasn't what you were expecting at all. You were expecting something else, like maybe she wanted you to kill something, or read the entirety of the Bee Movie script while annoying 90s pop played in the background.

You just shrug and say, "Alright." You watch as she walks away as you start walking by yourself, left alone with your thoughts. Funny, the one chance you have in this place to let your thoughts torment you most, let them cause major earthquakes in your brain and make the hippocampus split apart with volcanic eruptions and you are cool as a cat hanging around a jazz club in the peak years of speakeasies. Being alone isn't that bad, even if you do end up a bit disconcerted by the silence. Being with someone so overwhelmingly, completely motherly, that was throwing off your A-game.

The walk is fairly uneventful, and when you get to the end of the room, what you find is Toriel peeking from behind a rather large pillar. Then she's coming out, smiling so warmly that fuck, there goes your heart again. You actually should probably get that looked at by a doctor sometime, because you don't actually think that living for three years on a goddamn meteor and eating alchemized food of questionable quality is actually good for you. "Greetings, my child. Do not worry, I did not leave you."

Those words shouldn't strike a chord, but they do. "Yeah, trust me Toriel, I didn't worry about that for a second." And you're actually pretty surprised that you can say that sincerely, because you literally just met this woman, and you had no prior links to her She isn't like Dirk, who you sort of vaguely knew but also didn't, and she wasn't like Roxy, who you definitely knew after a bit. She was a complete stranger to you.

"Dave, you do not know how much that means to me. Thank you for trusting me. However, there was an important reason for this." Wait, there is? Shit, was this like some sort of weird test? You always fucking sucked at those. "This was to test your independence. I must attend to some business, and you must stay alone for a little while. Please remain here- it's dangerous to explore by yourself."

Honestly, you are completely nonplussed by any of this. Being left alone for a bit while Toriel did her own thing? That was alright. You can handle a bit of alone time. You're about to say so when she suddenly picks right back up, digging around in the pocket of her dress. "Ah, I have an idea. I will give you a cell phone! If you have a need for anything, just call."

Whoa, that was literally the last thing that you expected. When she hands you the most outdated piece of shit in existence, you take it anyway, asking, "Wait, how the he- _heck_ do you get cell reception down here? How do you even have phones?" And furthermore, why the fuck was she just carrying an extra phone in her pocket?

She smiles, chuckling a bit before answering, "Well, that's a mystery for now. I will explain to you after all of my errands have been completed. Be good, alright?" You nod and then she gives one last little smile before she's gone out the room.

For a few minutes, you just hold the phone in your hands and wait, using the time to both wait for Toriel to be far enough away and mentally process that massive tutorial that you were just given. In any case, after a few minutes, you decide to step into the next room to, what else, do some exploring. As nice as this apparent goat mom was and as sweet as it was that you got a new (or rather, hella beat up and prehistoric) cell phone, you couldn't just stay cooped up in one little space for too long, otherwise you might just go insane. No, a Strider's a drifter, and they sure as hell don't take orders from anyone. Besides, this place seemed so goddamn tame that it was almost nauseating.

So really, what's that worst that can happen?

 ** _= = = } JADE: Report to your friends that the worst has happened_**

Your name is JADE HARLEY, and this truly is the very _worst_ thing that could have happened!

You were there when the Door disappeared, leaving a child there, and of course the very first thing you could do was disappear to move around the space beyond the platform, trying to find the Door again. After all, even if it wasn't where it was originally, it had to be _somewhere_. There are the laws of equivalent exchange in order- there is still a gateway open between this place and your new universe, so therefore that meant that the Door had to be somewhere! You had searched everywhere you possibly could throughout that empty space.

You had looked in the void of nothingness, among the horrorterrors that lay just a bit beyond that, and then around the Universe Frog itself, trying to find just where the hell the Door went, and that's when you found something perturbing. You had tried to approach the Door when you found it, but ultimately, it disappeared before you could even touch the handle. You found the Door in such similar ways to this several more times, but every time, it simply moved away, just out of your reach. Not even your speed or omniscience could track it, and more disconcertingly, you aren't able to see into your frog. You don't know what's going on with Dave.

That turn of events brings you to now, floating gently back to the platform where all your friends, human and troll, stand. Terezi seems to be conferencing with Rose about something, while Dirk is watching the human child, no real expression crossing his face. Jake and Jane and Roxy are in a small group together with John, and then there's Karkat with the Mayor, watching as the little kid in the cute sweater that seemed a little bit too big on them tug on Kanaya's skirt, pointing to the small plans for Can Town.

It's so strange, but at the same time, interesting! The human child doesn't seem to be in the least bit afraid of the trolls, despite being so young. In fact, they seem to actually be really comfortable with them, if the way that they settle down into Kanaya's lap as she sits down on the ground is any indication.

You smile at that before heading over to where Rose and Terezi are, ready to give your little report of the events that you'll have to tell them about. You wait for them to finish talking, with Rose's finishing statement seeming to be, "Well, we shall simply have to see about that." Then they take notice of you and they turn, with Terezi grinning widely and Rose looking rather grave, as she asked, "And what have you found, Harley?"

"Well, I found the Door, but we aren't going to be able to go through it." You explain, frowning a bit, "Whenever I got close to it, it just disappeared again! It seems that whatever force took Dave is actively keeping us out of our own universe, keeping the Door from being accessible. Not to mention, we have another problem. I can't see into the universe." Rose seems a bit alarmed there, and the smile seems to be dropping somewhat on Terezi's face. For a moment, the three of you look to each other, thinking about the next thing to say. Rose worries her lip in her teeth for a moment, before she makes a sort of startling admission.

"I can't See into it either." That's definitely disturbing, and then Terezi gives a small growl, cursing to herself. She turns her head towards you (or like, an inch to your left, but close enough in your general direction that it feels as if she's looking at you), and then she's talking too.

"Dammit! I can't see any outcomes for Dave. I can see all the outcomes for _us_ \- there are so many ways that this timeline can tank. But I can't see shit in there!" This is definitely bad. Not only could no one get to the Door, no one was even able to see into the universe that Dave was pulled into. You thought, before, that it wouldn't be this bad. After all, the trolls had been able to see into your universe before, so why would this be any different? Apparently, though, this entire situation was definitely something special, because the Seers couldn't see.

"We've been blinded." Rose says, letting out a small breath. "Something is keeping us from seeing what's going on with our universe and our friend. Whatever is happening, we will have to proceed with caution."

"Not to mention, we'll have to work twice as hard now," Terezi chimes in, annoyed by this situation. "We're essentially useless in the sight department. Fuck, we're Seers who can't See- this isn't just going to be a minor inconvenience. Someone planned on this. Someone knew that we could See, and is interfering."

There is an uncomfortable silence, because just what could be strong enough to blind two Seers?

After a moment, Rose ends up saying, "We all will have to figure out modes of living, in the meantime. Since we have some time to think on that, why don't you introduce yourself to the child? I'm sure that they would love to meet another new face."

"Right!" You say, deciding to cheer up just a bit. After all, kids were always so cute and adorable! You can't imagine that anything bad could ever come out of this, even if you've never actually seen a human child in real life and in the flesh. Then, however, you pause for just a moment, looking over to the human child before turning back to Rose. "Uh… I sort of can't tell if they're a girl or boy?"

"Oh, that!" Terezi snickers, shaking her head, "The John human tried to ask them that, whether they were male or female, but they just puffed right up and put their hands on their hips. Then they wrote that their gender was 'Papyrus'. After that, Rose just guessed that they were nonbinary and didn't want to be called either!"

"Oh, that makes sense!" You say, because it honestly does, and then you go off to talk to the little human child, leaving Rose and Terezi to talk to each other and to Vriska, who walks into their group and just invites herself into the conversation, as normal. You crouch down near where the human child is currently situated, giggling a bit because somehow, while you were talking to the two Seers, they had wiggled their way into Karkat's sweater and are currently looking at everyone, smiling quite a bit with their head poked out. This certainly is a treat for you! You don't think you've ever seen Karkat so alright with touching anyone, or having a human climb on him, much less a 'human grub'!

Kanaya is chuckling even as you say, "Well, hey there! My name is Jade. I don't think we've met! What's your name, kiddo?" The kid squirms a bit, and then they have their arm free of the grey sweater that they're surrounded by. They point to some chalk words on the ground, and then you're able to not only see their name, but the entire explanation of everything that they had told the others. You have a read, and as you do, the smile drops from your face.

 _/I am Frisk./_

 _/The man who doesn't exist normally brought me here. I was resetting./_

 _/Not sure how to explain. It's a very long story. Longer than most stories, anyway./_

 _/I can explain it./_

 _/The short version is this- Whoever was pulled through the door is now the Fallen Human. They fell into the Underground, where people called 'monsters' live./_

 _/They are not human. They are better than that./_

You stop yourself before you can read anything else, wanting to take your time examining everything later on. You turn back to Frisk, with the smile on your face back at full force. "Alright, Frisk it is! So, how do you do?" The human child nods, holding a thumbs up sign to show that they're alright, but for some reason, you can swear that they get closer to Karkat. As if they're trying to put as much distance between themself and you in the most discreet way possible.

/ _They are not human. They are better than that./_

Just what could they mean by that?


	4. Part 3: Way Too Many Emotions

**_= = = } DAVE: Blatantly disobey Goat Mom and wander the Ruins_**

While you definitely aren't sure whether or not you really want to be referring to Toriel as 'mom' just yet, you sure as hell can do that. By now, Toriel is out of sight, meaning that you are totally free to do whatever you want. Besides, you can always just come back here if you think that Toriel is coming to make sure that you don't incur her wrath and get your ass beat.

The fear of being hurt by her is dwindling, though, and that sort of scares the shit out of you.

You don't like letting your guard down so easily. It's taken your friends years to even get to a place where you know that they won't kick your ass for being an asshole, and even then it's kind of iffy, what with Harley being a basic overpowered magical-girl-omnipotent-furry and with Dirk being… well, best not to continue that train of thought, you think as you enter the next room. The thought train about to go to a shittastic place has derailed, crashing down into the deep dark abyss of "fuck no" that resides deep in the cesspool of your subconscious to never be looked at again so that instead you can focus on more important things. Like what the fuck is that frog thing and why does it have eyes on it's chest?

You want to go closer to get a better look, but then as quick as fucking anything, your new piece of shit phone rings. You pick it up, and lo and behold it's the only number that's in the contacts of this dinosaur dung. "Hello, this is Toriel. You have not left the room, have you?"

"What, no, why would I do that?"

"Well, it's good that you have not! There are a few puzzles ahead that I have yet to explain. It would be dangerous to try and solve them yourself…" Right, because you just so happen to be a whiny little pissbaby who can't even walk four feet without crying for your mommy to come and save you from the metaphorical skeletons in the closet. Shit, those might actually be literal skeletons now, with this underground place already seeming so damn big. Then again, that 'bigness' is debatable, because motherfucker, you're still the size of a non threatening child, with a sword that's now about over half as long as you are tall. Then again, it's nice to have someone who's at least worried about you, and not just in the way that friends are worried.

"Be good, alright?" And with that there's the dial tone. Thank God- hopefully she wasn't one of those moms who called every five minutes to make sure that you haven't disobeyed her and are doing every chore that's asked of you. Okay, so she really doesn't seem like that kind of person, but then again, you've literally known her for an hour or so, at most. You guess that the calls are at least good for something- they let you find out more about Toriel without having to ask too much on your own.

Now that the call's done, you go to the frog that's sitting there. It's about up to your chest, and what the hell, that is one _big frog_. You could probably ride it across a stream or something, like an extreme water level version of Froggit from hell. The notion, though, strikes you as completely childish, and you push aside the urge to ride on top of it. At first, it ribbits, but then it just sort of whispers to you, without opening it's mouth, sounding a lot more like a child than a frog. "Excuse me, human. I have some advice for you about battling monsters. If you ACT a certain way, or FIGHT until you almost defeat them… They might not want to battle you anymore. If a monster does not want to fight you, please… show some MERCY, human."

Well, that's some helpful advice, you guess. You move on, and on the other side of the room, you think you can see something glowing in a pile of red leaves. As you make your way over though, a monster startles the _shit_ out of you by flying in. The monster, which looks like a weird ass owl or bird, seems just as startled as you are though, and then there's the box forming around you. From your chest comes that soul that you apparently have, and fuck it all, this is a goddamn fight, isn't it? Like, an actual fight. You still have your sword with you, and this time, Toriel isn't watching.

If you wanted to, you could just slash this thing to ribbons right then, but you really don't want to. It's not that you're afraid of what Toriel would do if she found out you did this- it's more that some dialogue box just appears, with the words, _Whimsun approached meekly!_ Little flighty dude doesn't even look like it wants a fight. You can't just leave a guy like that, not with the possibility of actually killing them there. After all, that Flowey asshole seemed really fucking petrified of your LOVE, whatever that was, so all you can guess is that means you're hella strong.

So instead you press ACT, and with the options there, you choose to console the monster, not really wanting to hurt something that looks so nervous already. "Hey man, it's all c-" You don't even finish your sentence when the guy bursts into tears and runs away. The box dissolves, and hey, you guess that's that. You sort of won the battle, without doing anything too drastic. You can only hope that all battles here will be this easy. At the very least, you can see whatever shiny thing was in the leaves. You get over there, and the first thing you have is this weird as hell shift in perspective, where you're just realizing that hey, crunching around in these leaves is kind of really fucking neat. You can stomp around in this pile of dead shit. Hell yeah. _Playfully crinkling through the leaves fills you with DETERMINATION_.

Wow, what the fuck was that.

After that little thought about determination, the urge that you've been giving into, the one that has you now awkwardly standing there with a foot raised in the air above a particularly crunchy part of the leaf pile and poised to stomp the fuck out of it, sort of fades, and you are _so glad_ that no one's actually here to see that. You can fucking hear Rose's psychoanalytical bullshit now- something about how being in the body of a child is likely sort of fucking with your brain, inspiring more childish views and urges and leaving you having little regressions in behavior despite being technically sixteen fucking years old. You set your foot down gently, walking out of the leaf pile and deciding to head north.

It's a dead end room, but it's a room with a bowl of candy right in the middle of it. Fucking score. You go to the bowl on the pedestal, making out the words, "Take one." on it. Hell yeah, you can definitely use some shit to get your energy up if it gets down low. You take one, and that little voice in your head is back, saying, _It has a distinct non-licorice flavor_. So this weird ass voice inside your head has very strong opinions on licorice. What a fucking nerd.

You're about to leave when you pause, thinking that maybe a few more couldn't hurt. Besides, you tended to get hungry hella easily, so having something to stave that off should be good. You turn back to the candy bowl and take another candy. This time, the childish voice in your head is way more of a judgemental asshole. _You took more candy. How disgusting._ You still want to stock up though, so you take another one, and goddamn this voice can't find a way to shut the fuck up. _You feel like the scum of the earth…_ and you sort of do, but there's no way in fuck that you're about to make that known. You try to take as much candy as you can shove into your little pockets, but you take it too fast, so the candy bowl falls all over the floor. Candy skitters across it, and you're left there kind of staring at it.

 _Look what you did._ says the voice.

And so you say out loud, "Fuck off."

 ** _= = = } FRISK: Interact with those around you for some obvious filler for the plot_**

You… really don't understand what that means? But you can certainly try to interact with others there more, especially the humans, even if they kind of make you wary.

You don't really mind the humans around you, of course. In fact, they all seem to be very nice! The one who calls herself Jade is very optimistic, which you like a lot. In fact, you even kind of try to wiggle your way out of Karkat's sweater to sit more comfortably in his lap, as well as reach the chalk. You can't keep cowering forever, if you're to make friends and 'interact' for this 'filler plot'. You think that if all the humans are like this, though, you can definitely get used to them.

Besides, Karkat said that all the other trolls are way stronger than the humans, so if anything went wrong they could certainly help you. Kanaya said that she has a chainsaw, and that Terezi and Vriska fight even better together than apart. Sure, you don't want to hurt anyone here, but humans are so different from monsters. They don't work in bullet patterns, and their attacks may not be directly on your soul, but the indirect way they hurt you with words and fists is even worse. You don't think that most of the humans here would hurt you, but still, there is one who's still there that you're a little afraid of. The one with the pointy sunglasses and silly shorts. You shift your eyes towards him, looking for a moment.

He… hasn't really given any emotion. At all. You know humans like that, and they're never good.

You're trying not to judge though, and you shift your uneasy glance from Dirk to the human with red slippers in front of you. You think that you've seen that before, ruby red slippers and striped stockings, maybe from an old movie. You lean forward and write down, / _Where did you get your slippers? Are they from a wicked witch?/_ and the girl in front of you grins widely, laughing a bit. You smile back, because that's better. It puts you a little more at ease.

"Hehe, no, not at all!" Jade says, a twinkle in her eye. "I'm actually a witch myself, so when I… came back from a certain place, I got this neato outfit, which includes the shoes!" You have a feeling that Jade isn't quite telling you the truth when it comes to 'going someplace', but you decide not to push for now. You barely know her, so it wouldn't be your place to say anything. "But that's not the half of it, Frisk, because I got something else along with the outfit! It's underneath my hood, in fact!" You're curious, and you mime taking off a hood. You don't want to use up too much writing space on the ground, and you also don't want to go over and take the hood off yourself, so it's the best you can do.

Jade nods, understanding, and then she takes off her hood. You gasp with what you see, an audible little sound that causes the troll that you're sitting on to jump a bit. No one seems to have expected you to be able to make noise. You can't help it though! Right on her head, moving in her hair, is a pair of fluffy white dog ears! It's no secret- you love dogs. You especially love _petting_ dogs. Now is no different, as you crawl off of Karkat's lap, quickly moving to Jade's and reaching up to touch the ears. Jade laughs, and you can feel more pairs of eyes on you as you giggle to yourself.

When you get chalk, you write beside where you're sitting on her, _/They're very soft. They remind me of the Royal Guard in Snowdin. And Mew Mew Kissy Cutie. Can you control people's minds by kissing them?_ / Jade looks at where you point, and so does one of the grey girls there, the one with the extra pupils in her left eye. She seems to have been attracted by the sound of your laughter, meaning that she must have been a very sweet person! The troll snorts though, loud as she crouches down beside you.

"Kid, this human here can't do shit with mind control. That's all me." You think your eyes are widening a lot, because honestly, you're already learning a lot about all of these people! "I could definitely _demonstrate_ , even! How would you like that, ya little punk?" You are suddenly reminded of another blue person who calls you punk, and you hold your hand out in the stop motion, before crawling off Jade's lap and settling down on the ground to write more clearly.

/ _You remind me of someone. Can you cook? For a lot of people?/_ You ask, and Jade looks bemused as she reads over it. Karkat's gotten up, and he's reading too, and now you can't see the emotionless human who was looking at you. You're sort of glad of that. The troll girl looks caught off guard, like she really wasn't expecting that question, and says, "Yeah? I guess? Why _would_ I though?" You lean back a bit, thinking. The resemblance of the girl in front of you is _really_ bothering you, so the best thing you can do is communicate that to them. Then, you get up, looking around before you spot Roxy and the Mayor. You go over and point to the blue and red chalk, which Roxy gives you, though she also follows after with some curiosity.

/ _What's your name?/_ You ask the troll girl, pointing to her before pointing to your question. She answers with "Vriska. Why?" You sit on the ground and in blue chalk, write the troll girl's name with a small doodle of her face underneath it. Then, beside it, you write the name "Undyne", before drawing her face, eyepatch and fins and all. Then you point at Undyne's hastily made visage. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? Who the fuck is this Undyne character?" You write under Undyne's image "Captain of the Royal Guard", and then under both, / _The heroine that never gives up./_ That's what Chara had described her as, and they were right.

You miss them. Even if they were kind of rude, they were also really interesting and cool.

"I think," Roxy says, pink eyes popping open a bit more in realization, "that they're saying that there's someone a lot like you back where they were from, spider gal! Say, Frisk, do you have any other people that you have back home that you want to tell us about?" And you nod, because she gets it! You definitely want to tell them about all of your friends from the Underground, especially since they would all be making friends with the boy who was supposedly pulled down there in your place. "So, Dave will be meeting these people?" You nod, and she's about to open her mouth when the human in orange comes.

"Perhaps we can have them record everything down in a book when we get to our temporary home." She's saying, and you don't think she's introduced herself yet. She's been talking an awful lot with the girl with red sunglasses. "We've decided that perhaps the best course of action would be for us all to take refuge on the golden battleship that Jade has so helpfully kept in her pocket. We were originally thinking of perhaps going to a planet, but nearly all of the ones that Jade has pose some kind of danger to the child we now have, and the Land of Wind and Shade has been gone for a few years now." You don't know what they're talking about, but in any case, you let them talk. You… sort of doubt that anyone could live in a ship that's kept in someone's pocket, but that could be code. Secret code! Like what spies use.

You watch as Jade takes a small golden ship from her pocket, and Roxy keeps near you, holding an arm in front of you. "Best to stand back, sweetheart- wouldn't want you to accidentally get crushed!"

You suddenly understand exactly what they meant, how they could all fit inside that little thing, when Jade's hands glow a bright green and the ship begins to get bigger. You thought that you understood some things about the place that you were in- the humans were humans, the trolls could be a kind of monster and might be able to do some magic, and the little guy called the Mayor was undisputedly the best leader a democracy could have. Humans were never able to do this, to use magic like this. Wherever you are, things are different.

But in a way, it's sort of relieving, because you can clutch onto the dark blue hem of Roxy's shirt without fear then. Maybe, maybe these humans were different, if they were able to use such powerful magic? Maybe they weren't even human at all.

It isn't normal to be comforted by the thought of being with people who aren't human, but you were never quite a normal child.

As Roxy hoists you up so that you can see better, though, you can't help but think about the family you still have in the Underground, the monsters that are still there. They may not remember you, but you remember them right now, so you wonder if they're doing alright. You seriously hope so. You would hate for any one of them to be laying on the ground and feeling like garbage or anything like that.

 ** _= = = } NAPSTABLOOK: Lay on the ground and feel like garbage_**

Your name is NAPSTABLOOK, and this, of course, is normal routine for you. However, today you decided to spice things up by laying down and feeling like garbage in your usual spot in the Ruins, where you usually go to get some peace and quiet.

Of course, everything at home is pretty quiet, even if it isn't exactly peaceful, what with you being the last ghost tending to the Blook family farm. You don't really get any customers anymore, so your days consist mostly of watching Mettaton be the big star that he always wanted to be and tending to the snails, who of course are just as quiet as the inside of your house. Sometimes, you can hear some fire crackling where your neighbor was, but you normally just close the blinds against it. Maybe Undyne should watch your cousin's cooking show- at least then it would minimize cooking disasters.

Right now, you're laying down in a pile of leaves, looking up at the ceiling. Usually when you're prone like this, time passes by you in weird ways, so you could have been laying there for a few minutes or a few days. It seems to be a few hours this time, because you can hear footsteps coming down the hall, and they aren't the footsteps of the woman who normally passes through here. They're a lot lighter.

So of course, you pretend to go to sleep, closing your eyes and trying to get the tears out of them while you say, out loud, repeatedly, "Z…." You feel something nudge you, or rather, feel a foot phase right through you, and then you hear a child cursing. Someone should probably dial back the adult language, especially if they don't want to get in trouble with anyone… "Are they gone yet…. Zzzzzzz…."

"Hey, Casper, d'you mind getting up? I'm trying to get by here, and goat mom ain't gonna be back for a while. You're not even asleep you damn marshmallow." You open your eyes, because you might as well, since he knows, floating up to an upright position. A FIGHT starts. Oh dear… This little boy seems to have a pretty high LOVE. Higher than you've ever seen a LOVE be, and you think that maybe you should be worried, but honestly, you're still sort of incorporeal, so you can always just leave and warn others that a boy who wants to hurt people is here.

Their soul is red, and you think that you might have seen that before…. You don't remember where though…

The guy doesn't seem too intent on hurting you though, because instead, he's acting. He gives a smirk, one that seems almost a bit out of place on his childish little face, and says, "Hey man, I'm no organ donor, but I'd be happy to give you my heart." The pickup line is adorable, and completely wasted on you, in your opinion.

He's so young (you can tell by the striped shirt), and he has his whole life ahead of him. He can do so much better than you. "I would just weigh you down…" You would, honestly. Any hopes or dreams that he has, he should just go do them, because if he stayed with you he would just be miserable and hate things that he has. You don't want to make the mistake of shackling someone down again. Your tears are welling up, but by this point you can't really stop them, and you're crying like always. He dodges them skillfully though, and you're glad of that. He must really be fast.

It's his turn, and he's acting again, saying, "Look, Napstablook, it's cool. You're really not a bother." You smile a bit at that. It's a sweet gesture, and it cheers you up just a bit. You'd love to keep up the fun and have a little attack for him, but you're really not feeling up to it right now.

You inform him of this, saying an apologetic little, "Really not feeling up to it right now, sorry…" With the next move, the human yet again tries cheering you up, and though you can't stop your tears, you're still a little bit happier, chuckling a little bit. "Heh heh…" When the third cheering comes around, you decide that you want to be able to show him something. "Here. Let me try…" The tears, instead of going towards the human, move up to your head, where they form a hat.

You can actually make the hat in any style that you want it, but today you think that a stovepipe hat would be best. "I call this 'dapper blook'... Do you like it…?"

"Holy fuck." comes out of the human's mouth, and he looks completely surprised. You hope that this doesn't scare him or something, but then he says, "That is the coolest shit I have ever seen. That's literally- Napstablook, bro, that is the _shit_. You're pretty fucking awesome."

"Oh gee…" The battle ends, since you guess that this means that he's sparing you and you're sparing him. You smile a bit, even as you say, "I usually come to the Ruins because there's no one around, and I can lay around and feel like garbage… But today, I met somebody nice…" The human gives this little crooked half smile, as if he isn't used to doing that. It's adorable. "Oh. I'm rambling again…. I'll get out of your way."

You fade away, moving invisibly through the Ruins, in a much better mood than before. Of course, then you fall down a hole, leaving you to just repeat the cycle of laying down and looking up at the ceiling. Feeling like garbage yet again. The time slips away from you, and you could have been there an hour or a minute, before something else also falls down the hole. You roll over and look, and there's the human again, clutching a faded pink ribbon in his hand. "Hey. What do you… have there…?"

The human boy looks to you, as if startled, before looking down at the ribbon. "Oh, you know, just some shitty old ribbon I found. Really, I don't know why I'm holding onto it, since it's a piece of junk and all. Besides, it's not like I can wear it or anything."

"Why not….?"

"Well, shit, I'm a boy. Or well, I identify as one, that's my gender or whatever-"

"Well… you know, the cuter you are, the less monsters will want to hurt you…" If you had the capability to do so, you would have shrugged. "Besides, there's nothing wrong with a boy liking pink ribbons… My cousin loves those. He wears them all the time… Along with pink boots, and pink things like…. oh no, I can't quite….. remember…." The human boy looks at you, looks at the ribbon, and then starts to tie it into his hair. You smile a bit, reassuringly. You know what it's like to need a lot of that. "See….? Cuter already."

"Well, I was always cute." The human smirks, and then asks, "But anyway, why are you down here? Back to your scheduled thing of laying around and feeling like garbage?"

"Sort of… I fell down a hole, and now I can't get up. Go on without me..." As you say that though, you pause, because you remember something. "Wait… ghosts can fly, can't they…? Oh well, guess I forgot… I'll see you around…" And with that, you decide to head on home. You've done your scheduled laying around today, and now it's time to tend to the snails.

You sure hope that human will be alright…

 ** _= = = } ROXY: Get the deets on the situation at hand._**

Your name is ROXY LALONDE, and honestly, there are way too many situations at hand right now! So much so that it feels like you're juggling all of these situations like they're hot potatoes.

Not that you aren't adept in dealing with multiple cases at once- you've had more than your fair share of practice doing that while trying to keep your three dearest friends in the whole wide world mostly sane, multitasking getting through the game while also comforting Jane through her lonely birthday and keeping yourself from hitting bonehead Jake and emotionally repressed Dirk. You can multitask certain situations and make a good impression, but this is definitely a problem for the books.

For one thing, the Door to your universe won't fucking hold still. The resident Time player that might have been able to freeze it was pulled through some hours ago by some liquidy skeleton thing, and then this little bundle of joy that you're currently holding in your arms was shoved out in his place. You can't get to your universe, you don't know what exactly is happening with Dave right now, and now you suddenly have a kid to worry about.

It's all been sort of jarring, but at the same time, it's alright! Especially since the cutie in your arms seems to have had a turnaround when it comes to you humans, because prior to seeing Jade do her space magic, they seemed downright wary of you. Especially of Dirk; god knows you love the asshole, but you still had to try and tell him on multiple occasions to leave the poor kid alone, sheesh, and stop staring at them. He's working through some shit of his own, you're sure, but it still doesn't excuse how freaked out his continuous staring left the poor thing. You'll have to really talk to him about all of that later.

Later, because now you're all floating up to the Yellow Yard, as Jade has called it. You hold onto Frisk so that they don't fall, but they seem to be having a blast, grinning wide and looking down at the ground, pointing to it with excited gestures. "Yep, I know! Neat thing that we can do here, right? Plus, you're going to meet the absolutely, most adorable person in the whole of paradox space!" Frisk looks at you eyebrows furrowing in confusion, and you laugh a bit. "You'll see!"

You see Rose floating away with Kanaya, with the both of them holding onto each other like the gay, in love nerds that they are. Vriska has Terezi hanging off of her neck and has Karkat in her grip, which only causes the troll to be yelling and screaming as the two Scourge Sisters just laugh at him. John is nice enough to carry the Mayor and his chalk up, and it seems that Dirk, Jane and Jake are staying behind to make sure that they can all carry the clown troll's fridge prison. Honestly, Janey could probably just lift it herself. The girl is buff as hell in addition to that cute chub, and she probably could. After all, she's flipped over a heavy ass table with one hand before.

You land on the deck of the ship and whistle, setting Frisk down and looking to Jade. "Dang, Captain Harley, this is one fine vessel you got here! It really gets the crew's engines roaring, if you know what I mean. I always did like a gal who could pilot a thing like this. Even better if they're in uniform..." You wink, and Jade hits your arm, laughing.

"Roxy, no! There's a kid here! Save that for when they're asleep!"

"Alright, alright. Now, where is Calliope?" Frisk tugs on the hem of your shirt, and you look down at them. They look up at you with that confused expression, and you grin. "Just wait a second. We just need to find her. Come on Frisk, let's go look for her!" Frisk seems to like that idea, because they've begun marching over to where Kanaya and Rose are landing, where Terezi is making her way over to as well. You hurry after them, but then you stop, because luckily it seems that your favorite little cherub of all time is already making her way over!

You lean down and turn Frisk around, pointing to Calliope, and Frisk's eyes widen. You don't expect them to, but soon enough, they're running over to Calliope, grinning quite a bit. You don't think you've ever seen a green skull look more startled in your life, and you're able to go over and introduce them. "Alright Frisk, this here is Calliope! Isn't she adorable?" Frisk nods, and grins up at the cherub. In just a few moments, though, Frisk points over to the Mayor with his chalk, and you nod. They run off, and then Calliope takes this chance to look over to the direction of the human child, looking at them wonderingly.

"They're a small human." She says, bringing a clawed hand to her mouth, "They absolutely look like a small human! But… what's happened? Why is this new, small human here?" All good questions, in your opinion, and now you get to describe this situation to the best of your ability. At the very least it'll help you work through it all.

"Okay, so the Door… well, it keeps _moving_. It isn't staying still now. When we were about to go through, Dave was pulled through by something, and then little Frisk- the human child over there looking for chalk- was left." It's an easy enough explanation, and you bite your lip a bit, trying to find the best way to explain it all. We can't get into our universe now, and Dave is stuck inside of it, though we don't really know why this is even happening."

"Dave is gone…" Calliope's mouth opened just a bit, "Oh, dear, that isn't good at all! Have the Seers been looking into it all?"

"Yeah, they seem to have been! They've been talking a lot about this stuff. I guess the best thing that we can do is just go over and talk to them." Especially now, since Rose and Terezi seemed to be together again and discussing the very important situation at hand. You and Calliope look at each other, and it's a good thing that you're basically in sync on this, because you go over to the Seers, hand in hand. "Hey, Rosie! Got any juicy details about the world that we're supposed to be in? Or maybe, any theories on why this is happening?"

Rose looks a bit surprised to see you, but she speaks nonetheless. "I'm afraid not. We've already told Jade- our Sight seems to be useless in this situation. All we can do is speculate, based on the clues that we've been left with so far."

"Yeah, but these clues are fucking scarce as shit!" Terezi growls, and you think that she might be near the point of tearing her hair out. "All we know is that Frisk was caught up in some weird time shit, even weirder than the time shit that we've been through, and that something doesn't want us in our new universe. The human grub says that something that doesn't even exist brought them here. We can't go through the Door, we can't See into it- we're stuck out here! Someone who's apparently able to bend the rules of space itself is working for the sole cause of pissing us off, apparently. And then of course, we know that Dave was taken for some reason. We just can't figure out what!"

Calliope seems thoughtful all throughout this, and then she speaks up, looking to the Seers. "If it's someone who can bend the rules of Space itself, they must have a good knowledge of all the aspects… Someone who, maybe, is able to understand and go into the Void." That catches their attention, and Rose looks to Calliope, silently willing her to speak. "I may share a title and aspect with her, but I don't have this knowledge. She does. The alternate me."

The Seers pause, and so do you. You guess that this definitely counts as a lead, something that can be investigated. All you would really need to do is find where Alt-Calliope went. She could be anywhere, sure, but this was at least a start in what could very well be a wild goose chase. You're taken from your thoughts when you feel a small hand tug on your shirt, and you look down. There stands the little human child, yawning and rubbing one eye with the hand that isn't full of chalk dust. You smile apologetically, bending down to pick them up. "Sorry everyone, but it seems that Frisky here tuckered themselves all out! How's about I make sure they get shut eye, then go searching in the bubbles for her? It'll make some shi- stuff, easier." Nice one Roxy, you just saved the child from having to hurt their tiny ears on offensive language. You would be a great mom.

They nod, and Rose looks at you strangely for a bit, even as you walk away, asking Jade where an extra room in the ship is. By the time you make your way down to one (with a nest of blankets and feathers in it? has this even been cleaned?) you're starting to feel a little worn out yourself. Time to begin the search, you think, even as you clear away the feathers and use the blankets to cover Frisk up for the night.

You can only hope that this ends well.

 ** _= = = } DAVE: Realize this may not end well._**

"Oh dear, that took longer than I thought it would!"

You have just been wandering around the Ruins, solving puzzles and fighting (or rather, sparing) some monsters along the way. You've gotten other items, helped out a spider bake sale, and even fought with a ghost who later on told you you looked cute with the pink ribbon currently tied into your hair. You were supposed to rush back to the spot where Toriel left you, but now it's too late, because you can hear her up ahead, talking to herself.

Your name is Dave Strider, and you might just be screwed.

You guess that it was going to happen eventually. You're about to see what Toriel's reaction is to the fat that you've blatantly disobeyed her and come to this place, where there's a dead tree with red leaves all around it. You know that with Bro, this shit wouldn't have flown. You would have gotten your ass beat, like when you were younger and refused to talk, trying to communicate in sign language. The punishment then had been even more cruel, but you learned not to sign at all, since you had a working pair of vocal chords and better use them.

She's coming, and you're just frozen in place, watching, waiting, tense as hell. She takes out her phone, and when she hears yours ring, she looks over at you with a shocked look. She didn't expect you to be here. Then, she's rushing over, and you expect something, expect the other shoe to drop, expect the backhand that's sure to come. Instead, she just bends down a little, asking in that kind voice, "How did you _get_ here, my child?"

"Walked." Is your terse reply, and she smiles to you so reassuringly that it actually eases the knot in your stomach. So you were wrong after all. This giant goat woman has nothing but the best intentions for you. You're so glad.

"Are you hurt?" She looks you over, takes your arms in her hands and makes sure you aren't bruised. You aren't, not too badly, though now you have a bandage on your knee and a scratch on your cheek. "There, there, I will heal you." The fire she uses to help you doesn't burn in the least, and that's honestly cool as shit. It's like watching a welder sew your skin shut, just without all the blood to make you nauseous or the feeling of string going through your skin. You always fucking hated that feeling- it hurt, and it was uncomfortable. At the very least, it taught you how to deal with stitching yourself up.

You're torn from your thoughts when she says, "I should not have left you alone for so long. It was irresponsible to try to surprise you like this…" She seems to blush a bit, and you wonder how the hell you can see it through her fur. It reminds you of all the times you've wondered how Kanaya's jade blushing can be seen over her Twilight-esque glowing skin. Even then, Toriel is smiling. "Err… Well, I suppose I cannot hide it any longer. Come, small one!" She goes on ahead, and then you see it.

You stand outside of it for a moment, just looking. There's a little house here, one that looks cute and tiny. You've never seen a house like this- in the dreambubbles, all of your friends' houses were much, much bigger, with Rose and Jade living in goddamn mansions and John living in a really big house. Seeing such a cozy house here in the Ruins, and thinking about how it might be inside…. _Well, it fills you with determination._

You go inside the house, and immediately you're assaulted by the homey atmosphere. It feels really, really warm, and the front hall is really nicely done. Not to mention, you can smell something sweet coming from somewhere. Toriel stands in front of you, grinning from ear to ear. "Do you smell that?"

"Well, it's pretty hard _not_ to." It's true- the smell is basically everywhere, and it smells damn good, and you're really not used to this. You think that there's the sound of someone's voice, coming from behind you, belatedly trying to explain shit, but you ignore it completely.

"Surprise! It is a butterscotch-cinnamon pie! I thought we might celebrate your arrival." You remember, now. While you were wandering, Toriel called you and asked whether you prefered butterscotch or cinnamon. You told her that you liked both equally, and that you liked apples even more. She remembered that, it seems, and baked you something. You're honestly pretty fucking overwhelmed. This kind of maternal affection, the way she says that she wants to celebrate your coming, as if you're someone important, the way that she looks at you so kindly and doesn't want to hurt you at all, it makes something in your chest hurt. Goddamn, you had hoped that your heart had shriveled up and died somewhere along the line, made emotion difficult. It didn't.

You think you might cry.

You don't though, saying instead, "Well, I'm definitely worth celebrating, that's for sure." The quip falls flat, and it's so weak, but she chuckles anyway.

"I want you to have a nice time living here, Dave. So… I will hold off on snail pie for tonight." She winks at you, and you laugh a bit, because you can't stop yourself. You're in heaven, you think, and now you can't even keep the cool kid persona that you've been hanging onto. Great. "Here, I have another surprise for you." She goes down the hall to your right, and you follow after, because you're at ease for once. You're fine with staying right by Toriel. The thought isn't scary anymore.

"This is it…" She takes a hold of your hand, and leads you in front of a closed door. "It's a room of your own! I hope you like it." She raises a hand to your hair and pets it, and you let her, because fuck, you think your chest is about to burst. The Grinch may have had his heart grow three sizes, but yours isn't stopping there. It's growing so big that it might just burst out of your chest, and then you'll make Toriel cry with all the guts and gore. Even so, you can't understand.

You've barely known each other for a few hours, and she's the mother you've always wanted.

Why is she being so nice to you?

She pulls away, soon enough, head turned towards the kitchen. "Is something burning…? Um, make yourself at home!" And with that, she runs off to the kitchen to make sure nothing's on fire. You watch Toriel rush away before you go inside the room, looking around. It really is a nice room, with a chest full of toys and stuffed animals on the bed. There's no computer or wires, but you think that's okay. It's really homey, and you like that.

You pull your shades up and wipe at your eyes, shaking your head to clear it. You came here, sure, and as much as it makes you feel great that you have someone who really, really loves you like a mom is supposed to love their son, you know that there's still a lot of unfinished business. You can't stay here forever, you know that. You have friends, out there. Your friends still haven't gotten into your universe, and you can't just leave them hanging. You've been through hell and back with them, so you can't just leave them like that. And even if they did come through, they might not have come here. They might be on the surface.

You groan, sitting on the edge of the bed. You want to just rest for a bit, forget about your troubles for a goddamn second. Is that too much to ask, before you charge into a new adventure? One that you don't even really want to have? You sit up straighter, though, because now you can clearly see the figure of another human in the room, some little asshole with the rosiest fucking cheeks you have ever seen on a person. Shit, those things look painted, like they belong at the "It's a Small World" ride at Disney but were rejected. They have their arms crossed over their chest, and they're glaring at you. You push aside the useless emotions trying to well up in your chest after all that shit with Toriel, glad for a distraction So of course you ask, "Who the fuck are you?"

"I'm Chara, or as you should know me, the only darn person here who knows what's going on!" They growl out their words, glaring at you with red eyes. Or are they brown? You can't tell with the shades, and you don't want to find out, just in case their eyes are normal and yours are still freakish as shit.

"Dude, what the hell? Are you the little shit who's been following me around?" Your face falls into the poker face that it's designed to do, and you cross your own arms, mirroring them. Two could play at this petulant game, asshole.

"Well I sort of _have_ to follow you around! You were the one who fell down here instead of Frisk! Where the hecky are they anyway?"

"I have no fucking clue, and did you really just say 'hecky'? What are you, ten?"

"I'm _eleven_ , thank you very much! Just because I don't like to have a potty mouth doesn't mean I'm some little kid!"

"Wow, eleven entire years old, I'd be impressed if I was actually eight. I'm not. I'm sixteen."

They just scowl at you, shaking their head. "Excuse me? What the frick is wrong with you? You don't make any friggin' sense! You stomp around in the leaves that you find and then, on the same breath, go strutting around like you're some big hotshot! You took all the candy out that bowl, you absolute _slime_."

"I don't have the willpower to deal with you right now. I'm going to sleep." You tell them, turn around, and lay on the bed without getting under the sheets. Before laying down, you honestly weren't all that tired, but this bed really is comfortable. It's the most comfortable thing you've laid on, and it's still warm as shit, so pretty soon you're getting drowsy. The little ghostly asshole doesn't want you to be ignoring them, so they just keep on raging, stomping their foot and doing some other things in the background that you vaguely register.

You can't help it. After everything, you start to drift off. You wonder what happens now, since you can't dream on Derse and there aren't any dreambubbles here that you know of. That thought is fleeting though, because soon enough, you are out cold.

You don't realize this Chara person finally stopping when they realize you really are asleep, and you don't realize that they start pulling the comforter over you.

All you know is, you fall into a dreamless sleep.


	5. Part 4: The First True Battle

_**= = = } DAVE: Wake up**_

When you finally open your eyes, you feel really, really groggy. Vaguely disoriented too. The room is a lot dimmer, and when you sit up, the comforter of the bed falls off of your shoulders. You look around, and for a second you really don't understand. You thought that you would have been in the dreambubbles, but here you are, waking up here. Waking up in the room that Toriel gave to you.

Your name is Dave Strider, and with the sleep being rubbed from your eyes, you can think a little more clearly.

You guess that Toriel must have tucked you in, whenever she might have come into the room and checked up on you. The thought is actually sort of heartwarming, and you bundle the blankets around you for a moment before letting them fall back on the bed. You get out of bed, figuring that now would be a good time to go out and hang around the monster a little bit, in whatever it was that she wanted to do. It's about damn time that you think about what you're about to do and how you're going to go about doing it.

What you want to do, the shit that you want to eventually do, is find the exit of this place and leave. You sort of don't want to, sure, but you're going to have to move on eventually, you think. You have to push on ahead and see what's next, where our friends are in this situation, and how the hell you can get back to your proper age. As fun as it would be to stay a kid forever, that has to change sometime, and besides, you think you might just go fucking bonkers if you had to stay a goddamn child for so long. It would get tiring after a while, you're sure, the constant coddling and being thought of as a helpless little kid who can't get shit done.

With that you stand up a bit straighter, nearly missing the sight of something on the floor in the dim light of the room. Shit's dark in here, meaning that it's a little hard to see, and you don't have your shades on your face. You guess that bit is what saved you from walking straight into a wall as soon as you start onwards, and let you see the piece of pie on the floor that you nearly step on. You bend down and pick the plate with the slice up, and shit, it smells good, better than anything you've had in your life. Kanaya might have been a fantastic goddamn cook, but that was only limited to those Alternian dishes that you sometimes couldn't stomach, and you've never had a fresh, honest to God home baked pie. You decide to save that for a little bit later though, and you find that your pockets work much like a sylladex. You can put the pie in there with no mess. Thank God for that.

You search around the darkened room for a bit, because it seems that little shit of a child spirit has gone off to do ghost things somewhere else around here and won't help. Either that, or they hid from you deliberately and are being an asshole because you called them ten even though they're apparently eleven. One entire fucking year older than what you guessed. Well, excuse that little asshole, because time is an illusion of wibbly wobbly nonsense anyway and they didn't need to get so pissy about what age they're going to be staying at for the rest of eternity.

Eventually, you do find your shades (no thanks to Casper the Angry Ghost) on the chest of drawers by the wardrobe, and with your eyes suitably ready for the world, you make your way out into the significantly brighter hallway. It's pretty roomy, and there are a lot of plants around in pots, really well taken care of. You wonder what exactly Toriel does with her time, if she has a job or something else. Do they have a monetary system of exchange here? Well, obviously they do, since you have a shit ton of gold from all those fights you were in, but is there a free market? Trade with other places? Are monsters forced to work to the point of hating their own bleak existences? Is there Monster Capitalism? Because if there is, you'll have no choice but to be extremely disappointed.

You head down the hall, the part that visibly ends in a dead end, and go into a room. It's all blue, calming, with a few more plants an entire large bookshelf filled to the brim with books. It's another bedroom, and since you figure that you haven't seen anyone else around here, this could only be Toriel's room. You hesitate, because shit, you've never actually _been_ in a guardian's bedroom before. Bro slept out in the living room, more often than not, and yours was the only bedroom. You just know, though, that if Bro had his own room and you touched his shit, you'd have your ass beat. You know that Toriel wouldn't do that, but the thought is still enough to make you hesitate before going into the room and rooting around Toriel's shit. She has an opened diary on the desk, and you can't help but take a peek.

 _Why did the skeleton want a friend? Because she was feeling BONELY!_

The page is just… filled, to the brim, with awful puns about goats and skeletons. It honestly reminds you of Aradia, who would sometimes just make death puns and was sort of a goat. Goats and rams were close enough, right? You never really paid attention to those things. Mammals weren't your forte- birds, though, that was your shit. By the desk where the diary lay, now untouched because you will not allow your hands anywhere near such awful punnery, no matter how pure the writer of them is, is a plain old bucket. Of snails. So she wasn't kidding about snail pie...

But hey, if the French could eat snails out of their shells, then you could handle some pie, right? Besides, after living on the meteor, living off of questionable quality alchemized goods and troll shit like grubs and intestines from some sort of few millimeter high white penguins (you didn't even know how to react to that, what the fuck, why the fuck did it look like spaghetti), you could probably stomach it. How bad could it be?

You're getting ahead of yourself though. You aren't going to stay long enough to be able to have snail pie. You still have to continue exploring this place and find out what the fuck is the deal with the situation out there, with your friends. You don't like to admit to shit like feelings, and maybe it's the fact that right now you're tiny and a child, or maybe you just subconsciously want to give Lalonde a fucking field day with your psyche, but you're pretty fucking worried about them. Did they have to fight that skeleton thing? When they went through the Door, did they even get to a safe place? Was this world really a hellhole, one final 'fuck you' from the game on top of the years of PTSD and trauma? You don't have a clue, and you're stranded with no powers to help you figure it out.

You haven't been here long enough to come to the point of missing your friends just yet, but you're definitely getting there. You just hope that shit out there is alright, and that everyone else made it in safely, even if you didn't. Well, even if you didn't _quite_ make it in safely. At the very least, you have Toriel here, someone who protects you for the most part during this first leg of your journey. You're sort of really fucking thankful to her.

You decide to go talk to her after you're done exploring, but there isn't much more to explore. Inside a drawer are flower seeds and some broken crayons (which was weird, but alright), and a door with a sign saying "room under renovations" stuck on it. The only worthwhile thing you find is the large mirror mounted on the wall. For the first time since you've come down here, you're able to clearly see just what the hell has happened to you, and the first thing you think is that you surely couldn't have been this skinny the last time you were eight, but here you are, sweater looking way too big and, when a sleeve is rolled back, arms as thin as sticks.

You don't like seeing that. It just reminds you of the fact that you didn't learn how to scavenge your own food and hide your shit until you were about ten, and how malnourished you were. That shit was hard, and you're pretty sure it stunted your growth too, which sucked because you could only see your head and part of your neck in the mirror. Even then though, with the softer features and pudgier cheeks and pink ribbon in your hair, you have to nod in approval. You're adorable as fuck. There is no disputing that.

You turn away, curiosity now mostly satisfied, and you go to see Toriel. You see the large staircase leading down someplace, but figure it probably irrelevant. Probably just a basement or something like that.

You head to the next room, and then you see Toriel, sitting in a large reading chair and reading with a fire crackling in the background. Everything seems so fucking domestic and peaceful that, for a moment, you're taken aback. Then you decide to focus on another object in the room to clear that all away, namely, her bookshelf. She really must love books, because there's a shit ton of them here too. The only place you've seen this many books was in Karkat and Rose's shared collection of romance trash and informational shit. It was like a hodge podge of bullshit, and you remember that back on the meteor you had thought about picking one up to read seriously, but then it just became time to criticize the shitty writing and annotate fucking everything about it.

You go over to Toriel, and she bookmarks the page she is on, smiling at you warmly. "Ah, up already, I see! Here, my child; come sit." There's no room on the chair though, and you're about to tell her that when she pats her lap, looking at you way too expectantly. Oh. Oh, okay, you guess you can roll with this, even if your ears are getting a little bit red. Your poker face is in place though, so maybe she won't notice.

As you crawl up into her lap and sort of lean on her, you talk. "Well, yeah. I gotta get up sometime, you know? Can't just lay in bed all day like a pile of lazy bones and flesh holding it all together like the saddest sack of rotting potatoes in the world." She bears through the metaphor with an amused chuckle, and she's literally radiating warmth, and softness, and you might have fallen asleep again if you hadn't just woken up. You can't really be this thirsty for attention, can you? Jesus, you need to get a grip on yourself.

She smiles sheepishly, saying, "Um, I want you to know glad I am to have someone here." And the way she tells you that makes one corner of your mouth twitch up. You try to pass it off in your mind as a smirk, but it's way too fucking weak to be that. The patented Strider poker face was breaking down in the face of this sincere affection, and you sort of fucking hate that, but at the same time, it isn't so bad. "There are so many old books I want to share… I want to show you my favorite bug hunting spot. I've also prepared a curriculum for your education." Whoa whoa whoa, hold the fucking phone there.

She did what. Okay, that right there is enough for you to be sort of weirded out. Why would she even need to do that? That seems a little bit extreme. "Uh, why the he- _hecky_ would you do that?" Shit, that ghost kid rubbed off on you in some way, because here you are, saying hecky even though you're a sixteen year old stuck in an eight year old body. You don't even have time to appreciate the irony of that because this seems a bit too important.

"This may come as a surprise to you…. But, I've always wanted to be a teacher." Okay, so her wanting to be a teacher made some sense then. If she prepared a curriculum, then maybe she was just doing it to get some practice? Because she knows that you can't stay here, right? "... Actually that may not be surprising to you… still…. I am very glad to have you living here, my child."

Then, you want to hit yourself upside the head. Of course she wouldn't know. You haven't told her yet.

"Toriel, when can I go home?"

It's a fairly innocent question, in your opinion, one that doesn't give away too much, but her smile falters, and she looks at you, especially at the pink ribbon in your hair, and seems to remember something. "What…? But…. this, this IS your home now." Well then, this was definitely something that you weren't expecting. You didn't even consent to it, she just sort of…. decided that this is your home now. That's honestly pretty weird. "Um… would you like to hear about this book that I am reading? It's called "72 Uses for Snails". How about it?"

"Look, you don't understand- I need to get out of here. And maybe find a way to the surface, you know. Find my way back." You're trying to let her down gently, but everything is coming out way too damn bluntly, and you feel awful, especially when she looks at you like you're slowly breaking her heart and smashing the remaining pieces to dust with a sledgehammer. But no, you have to steel your resolve. You've faced tougher challenges than this- you've seen yourself die, watched your friends die infinite times in infinite ways, you've died and become a god. It's still hard, for some reason, though. It makes your heart ache horribly in your chest. You need to go back to your friends. It's your duty to make sure they're all okay. You need to make sure that they're all fine. But god, none of Bro's worst training could have prepared you for this.

She tries to redirect the conversation, saying, "Um… How about an exciting snail fact? Did you know that snails…. sometimes flip their digestive systems as they mature? Isn't that interesting?"

"It would also be interesting if you just told me how to leave, you know. For uh, purposes of my education." You say, and she's silent for a long moment, looking at you. You think. She seems to be far away, distant for a few moments, and the smile drops from her face. Then, she takes off her reading glasses, and picks you up, gently setting you on the ground. For a moment, the action strikes you as weird, and you're struck completely silent as she pockets the reading glasses.

"... I have to do something. Stay here."

She gives you a smile before hurrying off, but suddenly, you have a bad feeling about this. You aren't about to go and let her run off before you see just what the hell is so important that she has to go do it just as you're trying to interrogate her about how to leave. You hurry after her, and you catch her going down the stairs. You wonder what she's about to do in the basement, and you descend after her, coming to a purple hallway as violet as the rest of the Ruins are. She's in the hallway ahead, just… standing there. It sort of weirds you out, and you nearly jump when she speaks, turning to you.

"You wish to know how to return "home", do you not?" She asks, and you nod, not really sure what to say in this situation. You hope that it's just going to be this easy, that she'll show you the door and see you out and you can go guilt free. "Ahead of us lies the end of the Ruins. A one-way exit to the rest of the Underground... I am going to destroy it. No one will ever be able to leave again." Then she turns on her heel and keeps walking, but not before saying, "Be a good child and go upstairs."

Of fucking course. You shouldn't be caught off guard, and you sure as hell shouldn't be feeling so fucking betrayed, because it always ends like this, doesn't it? There's always some fucking catch. This time, the catch is that the one person you've let get your guard down quickly, the one person you trusted after a day, is going to effectively keep you here against your will and have you live here in the Ruins. You should have expected it, because nothing ever goes this well for you. You can't stop how much it hurts though.

Maybe Bro was right. Maybe you just aren't fucking worth listening to.

You press on though, because you can't turn back now. This is the point of no return, and you still have your friends to think about. Sure, they might not have been able to offer the same level of maternal love and affection that Toriel had basically poured onto you in droves, but they wouldn't stab you in the back like this.

"You can't just _do_ that." You say, shaking your head, "I have to move on, come on- you can't just keep me trapped here against my will. This isn't fucking right." She doesn't even turn to reprimand you for cursing in that child's voice of yours, and you think you can see a green and yellow striped sweater out of the corner of your eye, but they seem adamant on hiding. Chara really doesn't want to have anything to do with this situation, do they?

"Every human that falls down here meets the same fate." She says, the smile gone from her face. You can feel the coldness from where you are, and you shiver a bit from the frosty attitude. It's so wrong, seeing someone so warm look so… cold. "I have seen it again and again. They come. They leave… They die." Her words are biting, and even then, she just sounds…. so fucking miserable. It hurts your chest and you open your mouth, finally speaking up when you both come to a pause.

"I won't die, though. I'll be just fine."

"You naive child…" You aren't a fucking child, and you are far from naive, but you doubt that Toriel will try to listen to anything you have to say about your real age at this point. "If you leave the Ruins… They… Asgore, will kill you. I am only protecting you, do you understand?" And that's what hurts most of all. You've heard those exact same words before.

 _You need this in the real world. If someone is beating you, what are you going to do, snivel and cry? You have to be ready to snap their necks. I'm only protecting you Dave, can't you just fucking understand that?_

And you know it's different now, because it's all in a different context, but the words still leave you just as cold and numb as before. She's doing this to keep you from dying. So was your Bro. She lavished you with love and affection, and Bro gave you things, tried to teach you lessons. They're so fucking different, but you can only guess where words like that are going to lead you both, and it isn't a good place. You've seen this Underground. You know what happens. You know that fighting happens. You know that you have to strife.

You just never wanted to strife with her.

"Go to your room." She commands, and moves forward again, and you can't even muster up any of your voice, not with your throat so dry and your body so damn cold. You follow after her and as she turns the corner, moving faster, she tells you, "Do not try to stop me. This is your final warning." Before standing in front of a large, stone door with a crest stamped on it, the same crest as her robes. She has fire in her hands, and you can't just let her destroy your chance at freedom, at trying to get through this Underground and finding your friends, "Asgore" and anyone else be damned. You can't let her destroy the door.

It flashes in your mind, of course, that you could always just stay back. You could let your friends forget about you, let them get on with their lives as best they can without an emotionally fucked up screwhead like you, and just stay here, living with this woman and letting her coddle and mother you until you could maybe feel like someone normal, for once, or as normal as someone could be. But you can't do it. You may have a phobia of a lot of things, a hatred for fighting, and a tendency to avoid too much social interaction like the plague, but if anything, you're at least loyal to the people who have been with you through hell and back. You can't abandon them.

You walk forward, and she turns, face grave as a tombstone in a cemetery. "You want to leave so badly?" She lets out a breath, stepping forward. "Then you are just like the others. There is only one solution to this. Prove yourself. Prove to me that you are strong enough to survive!"

This is the opposite of everything you wanted to do. You never wanted to fight Toriel, have a strife with her. You never wanted to prove yourself to anyone.

But if this is what you have to do, then what choice do you have?

Your soul is out in the open, branded by the symbol of Time, the gear that is in the center of your striped sweater. Her hands are flashing a bright red, red as coals, then white, and you know what kind of attack she's preparing. Of course, the one who you want to view as a mother so badly would be able to make sick fires too, albeit in a completely different and more literal way than you do. She looks at you, waiting for you to make the first move, and there's still the fight option. You could prove yourself, the way that you tried time and again to prove yourself against Bro. You can fight, raise your sword and attack. You could even make this all quick, make it nearly painless, so that she would be wounded but ultimately satisfied and let you go.

But you can't do it. Your hand hovers over the fight button, and you can feel it shaking, and you feel so stupid for it. This choice shouldn't be so hard. You should try to do it, try to fight back and show her that you mean business, but if you did, you're not sure how much you would hurt her. You don't want to hurt her, the person who didn't care about how you didn't listen to her and was just worried about you being hurt, even though you wandered the Ruins by yourself when you shouldn't have. She baked you a pie and made sure you were comfortable in her house. Hell, she was even preparing a goddamn curriculum so that she could teach you shit. She was preparing to keep you there for good, sure, but she was at least planning on being fucking kind while doing it, which is more than you can say about anyone else.

You can't press fight. You instead press act, trying to talk to her. "Come on, Toriel. You can't just keep me here forever, you know that, right? I have to go out and find some people. I have to go and find my friends."

She looks a bit taken aback, but then her features steel and before long you're bombarded by fire. Before when she healed you, the flames were warm and didn't do any damage. Shit was different now. You try to dodge, and for the most part, you do a good job, but there's still some pain there. You can see your health, and it's the same as the game, you think, but this time you see that the attacks are doing some damage, but not a lot. You guess that you might have to use items to get it up later on, like every RPG ever, but right now you're more interested in trying to reason with Toriel and get out by doing what she taught you to do in a fight. Strike up a friendly conversation. She's taught you too well.

 _Ironically, talking does not seem to be the solution to this situation._

You think that you can hear Chara, but their voice is quiet, small. They're trying to hide away, it seems, and you wonder what the hell their deal seems to be, since you haven't heard them since when you were bickering with them earlier. That thought is short lived, because you exhausted your turn trying and failing to come up with conversation topics. The fire comes again, and you jump as high as you can to keep away from most of it, but her hands are coming as well so you have to watch out for that.

You remember, though, what one of the Froggits in the Ruins said to you (or rather, what Chara had translated it as). One day, you might have to spare someone even if their name isn't yellow. You think that perhaps you finally realize what you can do in this situation, and you press the Mercy button. You're going to spare Toriel. She stares right through you, raising her hands and coming for you. A flame hits your arm and fuck, you can feel how that stings, shit, that might just leave a mark. Your health is still whittling down, and your vision is starting to blur a bit around the edges, but you get right back up, panting a bit even as you spare her again.

"Attack me or run away!" She booms, and you feel like you're going to cry, because you remember the first strife you ever had, and those were his words too. _Fight me or run like a coward_. Except that time, you didn't have a choice. This time, you do have one, and you're going to do the right thing to make sure that this monster isn't hurt. Even if she's hurting you now, she's only doing it because you fucked up, right? You're not doing as she says, not when it really counts.

"What are you proving this way?" She gets out through gritted teeth as the next wave of fire comes your way, washing over you before you can dodge and leaving your skin feeling burned as if you bathed in the stuff.

"I'm proving that I don't need to fight! Isn't that obvious by now?!"She looks at you, and you know your health is starting to dwindle to half, and you're prepared to do something about that. She looks so fucking pained to be doing this, and when you spare her, there's no fire bursting towards you. It doesn't hit you at all, and anywhere you go it flutters away. Toriel isn't fighting as hard now. She doesn't even seem to be trying.

"Stop it. Stop… looking at me that way." You hadn't realized it before, but your shades are gone, knocked onto the ground either by fire or by the sheer speed of your dodging. You must not have noticed it due to all the stupid emotional turmoil you're going through. No wonder all that fire was so bright and everything seemed so vivid. You're not sure what kind of look you're giving her, but you hope to yourself (since you're technically a God and all) that it'll help change her mind about all this and you can go. The fire yet again cascades down around you, never touching you. "Go away, Dave. Go back to your room."

You don't move. You let the fire pass you by and just silently press mercy and spare again. You have so much you want to say right now, but your throat is constricting, and you can't even bring yourself to speak. Your eyes are burning, your skin is burning, your throat and lungs are burning, and for a second, you think that you're engulfed in flames. You aren't, though, none of them have hit you in the last five minutes, none of Toriel's magic attacks. You're still at half health, and you look up at her, watching as the fire goes out in her hands. She looks at you, pleadingly, and this is so different. This is different because it worked- the choice you made worked, and she isn't trying to hurt you anymore.

"I know you want to go home, but…" She starts, eyes forlorn and so damn sad that it makes your chest ache. Even though she did this, started this strife and roughed you up a bit, she still stopped because she didn't want to actually hurt you. She wasn't trying to toughen you up for any game or outside world. She was just trying to protect you. "But please, Dave… go upstairs now." You mutely shake your head, and then you spare her again. "I promise I will take good care of you here." She's smiling at you, looking at you so hopefully, and you don't doubt for a second that she would, that she would take such amazing care of you and let you live without fear of any game. But you can't stay, can you? Even though you really, truly want to. "I know we do not have much, but…"

You shake your head again, taking a step towards her. She frowns, and you can feel your own heart starting to shatter a bit too, like it's mirroring hers. "We can have a good life, here. So, please…. just let me… Why are you making this so difficult?"

"I have to go." You get out quietly, and those three little words are killing you slowly, making your eyes water. This time, you don't have to hide it behind your shades.

Eventually, she smiles, a humorless, bitter little smile, and chuckles. "Haha… Pathetic, is it not? I cannot save even a single child." Every one of her words hits in the worst way possible, resonating with you so deeply. You wish you could go over, give her a hug, and then tell her that you'll do it, that you'll stay here. You'll learn everything she has prepared for you. You'll eat snail pie and anything else she makes. You'll make friends with everyone in the Ruins. You want to tell her that you'll even read all of the old books that she wants to share with you. But you can't, because you aren't going to do that. You have to have some self control.

Then she looks down at her feet, before looking back up at you, nodding slowly. "No… I understand. You would just be unhappy trapped here. The Ruins are very small once you get used to them. It would not be right for you to grow up in a place like this." And that hits you even harder than everything else, because she's doing it. She's actually listening to you and letting you do what you need to do. She's trying so hard to understand where you're coming from, and you're just going to fucking leave her here.

She takes a step towards you, and the box around you is dissolving down to nothing. The fight is over, and she's here, smiling down at you warmly even as she says, "My expectations… my loneliness… my fear… For you, my child, I will put them aside. If you truly wish to leave the Ruins… I will not stop you." She's letting you go. You didn't even have to lay a finger on her, and she's letting you go. She bends down to your level, smiling so sadly that you feel both numb and like you're going to break apart at the seams, glass heart and paper soul shattering and burning away. You don't know what to say here. You're struck dumb, speechless, unable to let the vomit that normally falls from your throat in a waterfall of bullshit get past the dam of your teeth.

"However, when you leave… please do not come back." She sounds close to crying herself, and you can see the tears in her eyes. It must be something that would break her, much in the same way it's breaking you, to see you come back. "I hope you understand." And you do. You really do. She reaches out, then, and wraps her large furry arms around you, bringing you in for a hug. For a moment, you can't really do anything but freeze up. Then, though, your arms wrap around her, and you can't help yourself. You feel so stupid, like such a fucking baby, but you're sobbing into her neck, tearing spilling out over your cheeks and you can't stop yourself. She doesn't make fun of you for it, or push you roughly away. Instead, she runs a hand down your back, warm and soothing, and you think she must also be healing you before you can feel all the aches of battle melt away with warmth.

She pulls away when you're finally able to stop, wiping almost violently at your eyes and trying to get the last remnants of tears out of them. You look up at her as she says, "Goodbye, my child." so tenderly and so heartbroken. Then she walks around you, and you turn to watch her disappear down the purple corridor, turning the corner and leaving your sight. You're free to go now. You're free to leave the Ruins, and continue on your quest to find your friends. You can continue on, and never have to worry about Toriel again, because surely another child will come, someone who actually is a child, and will want to stay with her and be lavished with care. You have all of your friends to worry about.

But god, you're so fucking selfish, because you want to go back. You wish you could just go back to before this all happened, so that you could actually enjoy the little bit of time you had with Toriel in her house before interrogating her and forcing her to this extreme. You care about your friends, sure, but even then, you just want to go back, be able to maybe even call Toriel 'mom' like you originally wanted to do. Your eyes close tightly, and you just want to be able to forget about what just happened for a while, but here you are, just sitting here and feeling sorry for yourself.

When you open your eyes, though, you're in front of a cozy little house in the Ruins. You're disoriented, even if you are filled with determination, because you were just in front of the door that would take you out of the Ruins, and here you are. You went back in time. In fact, you can even see Toriel through the open door, looking just as excited as she had before when presenting you with her surprise.

This is the first time you've ever LOADed your SAVE.

In fact, this will be far from the last time you do it, too. Of course, you don't know that just yet, so for now, all you do is go into the house and hope that this isn't some messed up dream that leaves you reliving these moments while you're passed out in front of the door to the rest of the Underground.

If this is a dream, after all, you aren't sure if you ever want to wake up.

 _ **= = = } FRISK: Wake, perchance, to dreams.**_

Your name is Frisk, but when you open your eyes, you're somewhere that you don't expect to be.

You had just closed your eyes mere moments ago, and yet, you're nowhere in the small, slightly apple smelling room that Roxy had brought you to to nap. You'd think that this is a dream, except you have control over your body, and are able to slowly get onto your knees. You've dreamt before, and none of your dreams tend to make sense. This is different. This is off. This is utterly, completely, strange and wrong.

You're back in the Underground, somehow. You're back in the Underground, in the place that you were going to go before you were going to reset. You had planned to tell Sans, and then apologize for what you were about to do. Then the man who seemed to have come from some Void appeared and spirited you away, just as you were making your way through Waterfall. It's just as cold as always, and you shiver a bit, You wipe the melting snow off of your legs, and you find that strange, that you've been laying down in the snow. Then again, if this is a dream, that would make sense. You still aren't sure that this is a dream.

It's disorienting, to say the least, and it leaves you dizzy. For a moment, you sit back in the snow, looking at the town around you. You're in front of the cheerful sign that says 'Welcome to Snowdin!', and you can see the town stretching out before you. But… there's something wrong. There's something very, very wrong here. It's much quieter than the last time you came here. Usually, there are people bustling about, going into the shops and places all around the town. There's usually someone stocking up gifts underneath the tree for Gryftrot, but right now, there's no one. You think that, maybe, everyone just went to sleep? It would make sense. Everyone here needed to sleep eventually, and even if you've never seen a time when the town doesn't have at least one resident outside, it could just be very, very early in the morning, before the time when birds normally sing.

When the dizziness in your head lets up, you get up one more time, and start walking. Strangely enough, you don't see your old save point where it normally is. Normally, it's between the inn and shop. There's nothing but a box there now, and you decide to have a look inside of it, see if you still have your butterscotch-cinnamon pie and steaks. You open it up, and for a moment, you aren't comprehending. These… aren't your items. You've never picked up any weapons beyond the stick you carry. Why is there an empty gun inside of the box? Then, you end up realizing there's more inside. You fall back, a small sound leaving your lips as the lid of the box falls closed, leaving all those…. things inside of it.

The box is absolutely filled with Snowman Pieces.

You remember that Snowman, back in Snowdin Forest. They were so eager and excited, and when they had heard that you carried that one piece they'd given you all over the Underground, they were so happy that they couldn't even stand it. You've only ever gotten one piece from them. Someone took much more of them- in fact, it looked like so much that it looks like they… It looked like they killed them.

Oh, god, you have to tell someone! Someone has to know that there's a monster around that's hurting people. You know that Undyne is here- she should be, after the fire that had gone to live in her house after you both accidentally started burning it down, but you need to tell someone immediately. The closest place there is is Grillby's. You're sure that the Canine Unit of the Royal Guard will be able to sniff out whoever did this. There's that empty gun inside of it too. They can use that to find the scent. You scramble up and run as fast as your little legs can carry you, which is certainly very fast, after all that practice dodging enemies. You don't see a single person around the town. No one is there. No one but you.

You burst into Grillby's, and you're about to go to the table where the dogs normally sit, but you freeze right in your tracks. The diner is completely empty, and nearly in ruins. There are tables, chairs knocked over, things littering the ground. You don't understand. Grillby has always been a neat monster- he would have never allowed all of this to fly in his business. Then, as you make your way further into the deserted room, you find deep claw marks on the floor, as if some monster was dragged throughout the place and tortured. Then, there's the dust. There's dust, covering nearly every surface. At first, you think, you hope to anything that can hear you, that the dust is just out of old age, that this place was simply left for a long time. But no.

You've seen this, in all the times you've gone through the Underground and killed just one or two monsters who were really trying to kill you. This, this dust that covers everything, seemingly ground into the ground as footprints, is monster dust. Someone came in here, and… they killed everyone inside.

You can feel your heart pounding in your chest, fighting against your ribcage as you heave out a little breath, trying to take deep, deep breaths, even though your lungs are burning and your throat feels like it's getting tighter and you're trembling something fierce, because you have to try and calm down, have to try and think rationally and not think about the fact that you're about to fight for your life against something that's even worse than anything you've ever faced before.

You have to find someone. You have to find anyone!

You run out of Grillby's and run north, knocking frantically on the door of the little slimes, the knock that the one inside loves to hear. There's no answer. The Ice Wolf isn't throwing ice into the river towards the Core. You run back South, but in the shop there's no one there, and in the inn there's dust and the torn stuffing from a decoy rabbit. No one in the Library, no one in the houses- you couldn't even find anyone at Sans and Papyrus' house. You even try opening your mouth and speaking, voice cracking with the effort to scream, to say something above a raspy whisper.

There's no one here. There's no one here. There's no one left. You're all alone, and you're so, so scared. This has to be a dream. You have to be dreaming. But why does everything feel so _real_? Why is everything like this?

You try one more time, hoping, just hoping, that maybe this is all some sort of trick. You call for Papyrus, for Undyne, for Sans. Your throat burns horribly, and you feel like throwing up, but you have to try. Your voice is giving out soon enough, and you start heading east, deciding to try and keep looking in Waterfall, see if everyone took refuge there. You don't get very far, because you see something partially buried in the snow. Something bright red. You bend down and pick it up, hoping it isn't what you think it is…

 _*You got PAPYRUS' SCARF_

You stare down in horror at the red scarf in your hands, covered liberally in ice and dust. Someone not only got done killing everyone in the town, but they actually killed him. They killed Papyrus. You can't help the sob that breaks from your throat, and you fall to your knees in the snow. This isn't a dream, is it? Whatever place you were in before, the place that the man brought you, it must have been a dream, or a comatose state of some kind. You're wide awake now, and you feel like everything around you is breaking, because Papyrus is the last person who could have ever deserved to die. He always was so nice to everyone. He couldn't even find the heart to kill you, in any timeline that you fought with him. You never died in battle with him, because he never wanted for you to be dead. He didn't deserve to die. He should be alive.

You hear the sound of snow crunching behind you, and you turn your head, your heart catching right in your throat. Through your tears, their form is blurry, and they are taller than you. They got older- maybe it had been a year for them, or maybe even two, but you know that they are bigger and stronger than you now. Their LOVE is so high you can feel it, radiating off of them and making your blood run cold. You can hear a familiar voice, a voice that once was so sweet, even when they had been rude to you or were being sarcastic when narrating your adventure.

You slowly stand up, and turn around. You're looking at yourself. It's another Frisk.

But their eyes are open wide, nothing but whiteness there. They have blood on their face, though. Who did they kill? What human could possibly have blood so candy red? Their sweater is much dustier than anything you've ever seen, and their walk is so uncoordinated, shambling. The other Frisk is looking right at you, staring right through you it seems, and you think your heart is stopping in your chest. Behind them, you can see the apparition of the ghost child who you came to view as a sibling. At least, you think that's what they used to be. The spirit behind the other you is larger, more warped, with the most horrible grin on their black, oily lips. It opens its mouth wide, and you can see row after row or misshapen, rotting teeth. That thing behind the other you is not Chara. Not anymore.

Your hands are trembling, even as you bring them up to sign, to ask them not to do it, but it's too late. They're starting a FIGHT, and they're gripping the knife in their hand so tightly. You're afraid. You're so afraid, even as the option menu comes up for you. You can see their LOVE. You've never seen the LOVE of any other person before. But you see it clearly now. Is it because the other you sees you as an enemy? Is this their run of the Underground?

Their LOVE is at 35. With all the dust on them, you can't help but think that they've done what the Prophecy has said that you're supposed to do. The Underground must now be empty. There truly is no one left, because they've set out and killed everyone, even the ones who might have been taken into hiding. And the blood must have been from a human who might have fallen down here… Or so you think. You've never seen blood so bright red. It's so much more bright than the blood that a normal human might have.

The other you growls, glaring at you with such open hatred, visible even in the white nothingness that was their eyes. "You're in my _way_." They aren't signing anything, and you might be panicking, you might simply drop dead from fright. You can't sign correctly, not with your hands shaking so much. You press act, but there are only two options- pray and beg.

You try begging, looking to your alternate self pleadingly as you speak, voice quiet and raspy as anything. "Please, you don't have to fight. We can just talk things out, alright. I can help you, I, I can help Chara too- just please, you don't really want to _do_ this! I'm sure that we can just-" You don't get done with what you're saying, because you have to dodge a strike from their knife. The creature behind them laughs at you, and they're talking now. _In our way, in our way._

You can feel it. They're grinning, both of them are, and they're enjoying this. How many battles did they get through? How many fights did they win? How many fights did they end with just one strike with that dusty and bloody knife? You're so terrified you can't see straight, you can't see past all the tears clouding your vision and rolling down your cheeks. Why is this version of you like this? So horrible? Is this some sick tide of fate, something that life is forcing you to face?

Is this your punishment for nearly resetting and killing everyone?

Because that's what you had wanted to do. Back in Waterfall, while you were passing through, you were thinking about it. You were thinking, _I don't want to do this. I don't like this. But I just have to see…_ because you were giving up hope. You couldn't do it. You couldn't save everyone, no matter what timeline you were in. You always just made it to the surface, alone, with nowhere to go to but a place that could never be home. You tried so many times to break open the barrier, but you just couldn't do it. You nearly did this to yourself. You nearly did this to _Chara_ , oh god- you nearly killed everyone. You nearly took away their happy ending, you nearly became this.

No amount of begging could get you out of this, so again you try to pray. The other Frisk tries to stab you again, and you dodge. You know that no one is likely to come and help you, and you don't deserve to be helped with what you were about to do, but you can at least hope. Even if your Determination can do nothing now, you can certainly have hope. You try again to pray, hoping that someone would come and help you, that one of Karkat's friends could do it.

You aren't done praying when the next strike comes, but before the blade can hit, the other Frisk is frozen in time. Chara, or what's left of them, growls in this inhuman voice of theirs, pounding the ground with clawed fists and snarling, _Let them out! Let them_ _ **out**_ _! LET THEM_ _ **K҉͞I̡L̴͢L̷̨̀ YOU!**_ You turn behind you but already you're being scooped up into a pair of arms. There's another soul there, but it disappears, and so does the box. You can't help but gape. Someone is powerful enough to manually stop a fight themselves, and now they're flying away with you.

You look up and the girl with ram horns grins back at you, before looking back to the other you. "So that's the human grub who killed that alternate timeline Karkat before they were able to be put down…" So that was the cherry red on them. They killed that nice troll boy from before, or, another version of him, and then they were 'put down'. You've only heard that term used whenever adults talk about taking dogs and cats to the kennel and they never come back.

You're crying again, because somehow, that hoping worked. Your praying brought a savior, and even though the other you can move again, and is yelling after you and the winged troll currently carrying you, you're relieved. You're so relieved, and you're so sorry. You can't help yourself- you don't know if she understands sign language, and the words are already on your lips. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, please, believe me, I'm sorry, I really am…" On repeat, you can't help yourself from just repeating these apologies over and over.

"Oh dear!" says the girl, looking down at you. Your eyes screw shut, and she says kindly, "Well, now that we've found your dreamself Fisk- Or is it Frisk? What an odd name! In any case, now that we've found your dreamself, I can bring you to Roxy. She's been looking all over for you, you know!"

Thank God for that- you're going to see someone somewhat familiar. You don't know what this girl means by dreamselves or alternate versions, but you can't make heads or tails of anything at the moment. All you've gathered is, this is a dream, a horrible, horrible dream.

Maybe if you keep your eyes closed tight enough, you can wake up.

 _ **= = = } ?: Seethe**_

You can't be me. I am the only person who can be me, and I feel my own emotions. It's in your best interest to learn that quickly, while I find a way to get to you.

My name is Frisk.

I am now dead. I can't just "wake up".

This doesn't change anything, though. Even if that other me is gone, carried away by some other horned being that deserves to die like the rest, it doesn't change anything. I just need to find a way to kill off any of those flesh suits, the humans and monsters who roam here. I will eradicate the enemy. Me and Chara, we will _both_ eradicate the enemy.

And what enemy could that be?

Life itself, of course.

But for now, the only thing we can do is think of our next move. This place, this… bubble. It's almost like a prison. I can't get out, unless it's to another bubble where I can find memories of the past, worthless memories that don't mean anything. At least the humans and grey creatures, the things Chara has seen in other bubbles while peering outside into the void of nothingness that surrounds us, have enough soul left over after death to become ghosts that can somehow be murdered again. Monsters don't leave anything behind. Nothing but dust and broken memories of nothing.

It's a shame. I'd very much like to see them all again, just to wring their necks one more time. It would have been fun, especially if I could kill Sans again in front of his brother. After all, the little asshole had given me quite a bad time, the first time I killed him. Not only that, but I could look at Papyrus, at that naive, hopeful twit, and ask him again if he thinks I could be a good person.

But those fantasies are best left to another time, because Chara, ever sweet, ever helpful Chara, found something in the snow. Something dropped. I go over to see just what it is, and find the remnants of green fabric, with a flashing light pattern along the edge.

 _*I got the CAIRO FABRIC SCRAP_

I don't know what it will do, but Chara says it has great power. I know that they're right. They're always right about these things. As we went along our way in the Underground, killing everything, they got to be more and more adept at telling me things about who I was killing.

I smile, and tie the scrap of fabric around my wrist. There is no rule on equipment, not here in these bubbles. I can wear as much as I want. I can do as I please.

Now let's see if the new power wrapped around my hand will let me go into that golden bubble not too far off...


	6. Part 5: Trolling and the Time Question

_**= = } DAVE: Try to figure out what kind of time bullshit just happened.**_

Well that's way easier said than done. You kind of have no fucking clue what happened here. One moment you're just standing there and feeling like a sorry ass bag of self pity, and now here you are, back outside of Toriel's house, looking at the little goat woman who seems to be slowly growing a little bit anxious with you just standing outside and doing nothing. You should probably go inside and make sure she doesn't somehow end up thinking that you don't want to go inside, because that's pretty much the exact opposite of what you want to do.

You walk inside the house, and the scene plays out in exactly the same way- she tells you there's pie and brings you over to a room she wants to be yours, petting your hair before rushing off because something's burning. You're left standing in front of the room for a few minutes before you hear a very familiar voice behind you, tone somehow more hostile than usual. "Get in. Now."

You go into the room, sit on the bed, and look to the child who has their arms crossed over their chest, eyebrows furrowed. Then you take the chance to ask the one thing you really want to know. "What the everloving fuck just happened, and why is my time shit kicking in now, of all damn times?"

"I have no friggin' clue what you mean by 'time stuff'," Good to know that this kid is still adamant on saying little baby curses despite being the 'older' one, because if things had even changed minutely then you're pretty sure that would mean that you somehow got stuck with the kid version of Karkat, and while you love the guy, his past self was a sore pain in the fruity rumpus, what with all that leaderly bullshit and yelling about how either you or John were the leader of the group. Hard to believe that was the intolerable little shit you grew close enough with to deface Rose's books with the crudest phalluses imaginable, but them's the bones. Friendship was a disease and there was no cure, but what you have with him is a terminal illness known to both of your species. "But I do know this- what you just did isn't normal."

"What, never seen someone turn back time before?" You ask, leaning back and deciding that the best thing to do in this situation was to play it as cool as a cucumber and not let it be known that you're kind of dreading this because this means that you'll have to fight Toriel again and you don't want to do that to the sweet old lady. It's inevitable, of course- no matter how many times you might selfishly wish to go back, you'll have to move on eventually, and the fact that you actually did go back was proof enough that your previous thinking had been dangerous.

Then the ghost surprises you by saying, "No, not that! Of _course_ I've seen time being rewound- do you have any idea how many gosh darn times I've had to go through watching a kid with a lot of determination fight Toriel? A lot! A heck of a lot! But that's not what's weird. You LOADed your SAVE without nearly dying." They look at you as if you're something ready to snap at their ankles. "Usually you can only reset whenever you want- you have to be close to dying to LOAD, or else be more determined than that and actually be close to a God, and I know for a fact you're nothing like that."

You pause for a moment, considering their words. Somehow, things just got a hell of alot easier, and a hell of alot more ironic. If you could just LOAD your SAVE, then obviously that means that you can just find a way to SAVE in a lot of places and LOAD it all to go back to them. From what it sounds like, it was a power that someone seemed to have, a power that you might have more dominion over since you're basically a God of Time for this universe. That doesn't answer, though, just who the hell Chara had seen this power with before, so your next inquiry is, "Who did you see go back in time? Or what, was it you?"

"Not me. It was Frisk." Frisk? You think that's the first time you've heard that name, so color you interested in such a wide rainbow that Terezi could probably smell it across universe boundaries. "They were supposed to be the seventh fallen human- the one with a red soul, like yours. They didn't speak or anything, but they were a heck of a lot better than you." Chara scrunches up their face and you roll your eyes, hoping that by the sheer virtue of the fact they seem to want to find ways to hate you they know you're doing it behind your shades. "They could do the same thing. They had SAVEs and LOADs and resets. The six that fell before, though…" You're guessing that the six kids that fell before didn't have such a rad power backing them up on this, so you press further.

"C'mon kid, we don't have time to go running around the bush here. Well, I guess we technically do, but I'm an impatient fuck and you're not giving me anything straight." You lean forward, hands dangling over the side of the bed, "Spit it out- what other six humans?"

"For one thing, I'm _older_ than you, dummy," Ah yes, classic Chara, "and for the second, the story of these guys isn't all too great, alright? They all dropped down here and then they made it to Asgore's Castle, and they all died. None of them had special powers- three of them were mute too. That's it." So there it was again, talk of the child-murdering King. Really, you haven't given it much thought until this moment, mostly because in the game, you faced dangers that were more… urgent. A universe eating bastard with a peg leg, a literal immortal Queen of an entire warrior race, all the versions of Jack- they had been the biggest concerns you were faced with. This guy, Lord Homicide? You didn't even register it until now.

Well, shit, no wonder Toriel had been so heartbroken. All this does is serve to remind you that you have to eventually leave and make Toriel think that she's sending you off to your death. That stings, really badly, even if you do have a plan to one day come back here.

But instead, you ignore it like the mature teen-in-a-child's-body that you are and ask, "Well shit, what about the others? Did you talk to them any?"

And Chara apparently had talked to them, just as much as they talked to this Frisk character. There was girl with a cyan soul who apparently carried around a toy knife and loved detective stories, a boy with boxing gloves who thought Rocky was the coolest shit ever and bravely ran into danger, and a yellow soul that was obsessed with old Western movies but used to be a different color. Then, the ghost talks about the four humans that came before you, the ones that wouldn't speak.

"The third one that came around was a dancer, dark blue soul. I don't remember his name," Chara had slowly forgotten the names, apparently, and you aren't about to press the kid too hard on this. After all, the first six of these kids are dead. That would be a fucking dick thing to do, especially since you just met this kid earlier. "He communicated solely through interpretive dance. I kid you not, it was the most annoying thing I had to sit through, just watching him dance throughout his battles in these super old ballet shoes of his. But, at the very least, he was honest. He was a stand up guy, up until the very end." Then you learn that this kid was stabbed through the chest.

"Right after him there was another, the one with the violet soul. They lugged around this huge notebook everywhere they went, and wrote whatever they wanted to say, so it was easy enough to understand, thank God. They never did have good eyesight, so they kept mistaking all the dogs for cats. They were really, really persistent." And how did they die? Stabbed through the stomach and then practically cremated in a hail of fire.

"After her there was another girl, one with a green soul. She was nice, probably the nicest out of all of them. She would always do this thing with her hands, because she didn't actually know sign language, some weird charades to get her point across." Somehow, you find the fact that this girl with the green soul was killed being crushed by a hail of fire vaguely familiar.

Then Chara begins talking about Frisk. "Frisk was different, though. They had determination, so they just kept coming back after they died. Well- at least, most times. There was once, where they were so close to dying that their determination almost wasn't enough. Back with Flowey, they were shot with all those bullets right through the chest, and they were gone before Toriel came. They came back, though. They always came back, and they always went through everything without feeling too sorry for themselves and LOADing because they felt bad for leaving people." Wow kid, you want to say, that is literally the most unsubtle shade ever thrown. You could literally throw shade better than that on a hot desert day with the sun high overhead and no goddamn tree in sight.

This Frisk kid, though. You guess that you both have some things in common- red soul and being shot by bullets and time powers. If you ever get out of this mess and find your friends, you'll have to look for them, just to do a little side by side comparison with your silent counterpart. If they're even here, that is- from what it sounds like, they were supposed to fall down here instead of you. So that leaves only one question;

Where the hell is Frisk?

That's a question you might look into, after the entire going around finding everyone and getting to the surface bit is done. For now, you give the most melodramatic groan you can, probably winning the Oscar that should have gone to Leonardo DiCaprio but didn't because it's still 2009 (you're pretty sure, anyway) and he's probably never going to get one at this point. You haul yourself off the bed with a little, "Alright, alright, no need to be so gentle and subtle with my delicate lady sensibilities, just lay it all out in the open- I'll go and get us up and moving on."

You still don't want to, but you guess that this shit is inevitable. You can't stay here for long before Toriel decides on her own to destroy the Door, so you may as well be proactive and get this over with so you can move on and maybe ignore the fact that you'll have to relive that bittersweet victory of yours again and watch Toriel's heart break for a seventh time in her life. You march down the hallway and into the kitchen, taking a breath as you watch her slice a piece of butterscotch-cinnamon pie onto a plate for you. She turns, looks at you with a warm smile and holds out the piece, saying, "Ah, there you are! Now, is there something you need?"

"Yeah, actually. When can I go home?"

 _ **= = } VRISKA: Find Aradia and figure out what the fuck is happening with the dreambubbles!**_

Your name is VRISKA SERKET, and if your moirail hadn't coerced you into this, you would have been asking why the fuck you are currently floating with her through the dreambubbles on a search for Aradia and the kid she has with her.

Really, had this been any other scenario, you would have blown it off. So what if a human grub has a little tendency for violence? It wouldn't have been the first time a kid about five or six sweeps killed someone about their age. You're used to that shit being a way of life- back on Alternia, even before you and your now-moirail reached the age of five, you'd both killed countless other trolls on your expeditions through FLARPing. Death essentially became a way of life for all of you through the game. So what's the problem? Well, apparently the big problem has to do primarily with the fact that this human grub has a particularly nasty hellbeast attached to them, and also with the fact that they apparently are planning on leaving the memory bubbles they were trapped in and heading off to other bubbles that held ghosts.

Terezi warns you about the dangers of it as she hangs off of your neck, head turned upwards as your wings flutter as fast as possible to stay airborne. "There are way too many possibilities with this little shit- there are all sorts of freaky artifacts they could have found in their bubbles that could have come from anywhere. Jack, that stupid fucking puppet, hell, even the ghost killing asshole we ground into oblivion himself! Depending on what that kid has, they could do just about anything, like become weirdo candy beasts or be able to kill dreamselves or ghosts." That second thing sounds like a hell of a problem then, at least in your book.

"Okay, and? Even if the kid can kill dreamselves, what's the use in worrying about that? We'd just need to keep you, Fussyfangs, and Loudmouth away from them and it should all be fine! After all, the rest of our dreamselves are Gods- not even Lord English could kill us, not unless it was one of the oooooooonly two goddamn stipulations our immortality has!" This seems to be an easily solved problem, open and shut. Let the kid try and murder the ghosts inside- unless they had a very special piece of that demon puppet, that shit isn't happening.

Terezi shrugs as much as a person hanging around the neck of a fairy can, turns her head, and takes a deep sniff, which you roll your eyes at, before you notice that she isn't sniffing you. She's sniffing out something that's just _ahead_ of you. You look up and there it is, you see a spot of red in the distance, no doubt the very person you're looking for. Hell, you still have no damn clue why Terezi apparently needs Aradia now of all times, while she has that kid hanging around her, but she's the Seer here so the best you can do is trust your moirail and fly up to the other god. Aradia turns to you and smiles, the human in her arms shaking like a sick wriggler. Geez, what the hell was this kid's problem?

"Ah, there you are! I was just taking Frisk to find where Roxy and Calliope have gone. Is there something the matter?"

Terezi nods, turning her head to more fully face Aradia's approximate direction and saying, "Yeah, I'd say we have a big fucking problem going through several dreambubbles it shouldn't be going through. That duo, the other human grub and it's weird ass demon sidekick are on the move, and there are literally so many possibilities for what's going on that I'm surprised my thinkpan hasn't gone haywire trying to discern every minute change from another- in other words, this kid has the potential to fuck shit up, and from what it seems, they're most likely headed off to one of the main Prospit bubbles." Aradia nods, looking seriously for a moment down towards the ground.

"If that's the case, then we need to go to evacuate the bubble and make sure the human doesn't go too far. They seem to be worked up in a frenzy- I'll tell you more about what happened on the way there. But…" The troll looks down at the child in her grasp and says, "We also need to make sure that Frisk here, our timeline's Frisk, is somewhere safe."

"Just leave them in a Derse bubble or some shit." You suggest, much to the apparent dismay of your moirail, who smacks you upside the head. You glare down at her, "What?"

"Vriska, human grubs are way more vulnerable than us. The kid could get kidnapped or some shit, and then you know what happens? We doom this entire goddamned timeline because sources say they're gonna be important later on." You groan a bit, wondering what the hell this has to do with anything.

"Let's just quickly find a babysitter for them then!"

"Not enough time," You love Terezi to death, don't get it wrong- she's a pretty rad moirail to have and a pretty great overall friend- but you hate when she gets like this, overly serious about shit that isn't even that much of a concern! Or, maybe, it was sort of a concern and you just know what she's about to suggest, and it's a suggestion you absolutely fucking hate. One of you three has to stay with the kid, and if Terezi deliberately sought out Aradia, that could only mean that the next suggestion is,

"Vriska, you need to take care of the kid for now. It shouldn't be hard! Besides, from what it seems, we're gonna need Aradia's Time shit more than we'll need your luck, so it's just this little thing." There it is, the suggestion you expected, but not a suggestion you in any way want to hear.

"Terezi, how the everloving _fuck_ am I supposed to keep this kid occupied for however long you're off doing your shit?"

"Look, I know that fragile fleshy thing Aradia's holding is young as hell and you're probably the last choice anyone had in mind for hanging around the kid, but just take care of them until the Roxy human and the cherub find you! Frisk probably isn't going to be that bad; just make sure they don't die." You sigh loudly, knowing full well your moirail can hear it and deliberately overdoing it to blow in her face, but even though you don't understand why luck isn't going to get the job done in this scenario and don't like the fact that they're just shoving this fleshy responsibility on you, you guess you can't exactly object. Last time you took charge because you knew shit and had three years to figure everything out. This time, it's time for the Seers to get on board and take charge, since they're the only ones capable of gathering any sort of useful information now that it isn't readily available to the ghosts. Not with your new universe involved.

You hate this fucking situation. There's no way to take charge, and you know just about jack shit.

You're not gonna win this one, though, so you cede defeat and roll your eyes, glancing up to where Aradia was watching the proceedings with the now very quiet and still human grub in her arms looking at the two of you. "Fiiiiiiiine. I guess I don't really have a choice in the matter, this time around. Let's get down to the ground and just get this over with." Terezi paps your cheek as you and the other God here descend down to the ground of this bubble, a sandy beach. This is one of the dancestors' memory, but what memory it was, you're honestly not all too sure. You also really don't give a shit, and hope to God you don't run into any one of those assholes.

Terezi grins at you and lets go, while Aradia gently sets the human child down. Frisk doesn't really do much, just stand there while Terezi moves over to Aradia to wrap her arms around the Maid's neck, even while still talking to you. "See, I knew you'd come around! I'll tell you how everything goes when I get back, and you can get in on this planning so that maybe we can draw up a somewhat more conclusive plan other than 'find the other green one'. Just make sure the kid stays okay! Shouldn't be too hard, especially not for you."

"Terezi," Aradia looks at the girl questioningly, "if you have your jetpack, why do you need me to fly you over?"

"Because it's fun to make you do all the work! Why else?"

Yep, there was the Terezi you knew, the girl who wants to do some ridiculous shit no matter the situation. She could literally have been stabbed through the gut and need immediate medical attention, and she would still probably stop to take whatever shiny red things she saw, like shoes, or rubies. Aradia laughs a bit, and then she takes off the ground, with Terezi waving back at you. You wave to her until she's gone, disappearing into the middle distance away from the bubbles entirely with one of the few who could travel through that empty space easily. Now here you are, left with the human child.

You look down at the squishy, fleshy… child, that looks back up at you, quiet, just sitting there and watching. They're not doing anything to actively annoy you like wander off, but they're also doing an enormous load of fuck all, with a small dash of nothing. They don't seem to be keen on doing anything here, too deep in their own thoughts to apparently realize that they were just handed off to you while some shit went down. For some inane reason, that pisses you the fuck off. That might have just been because here you are, sitting here with probably the most meaningless job in paradox space besides maybe those useless leprechauns and their jobs, and your moirail and the one excited about death are off doing the actually important, cool shit. Not to mention, this little shit is just staring right through you, apparently freaked out about some bullshit you didn't see. You eventually snap at them, "What the hell's your problem?"

Frisk seems surprised when you speak to them, and they kinda shrink down into their oversized sweater like one of those stupid shelled reptiles, and then just shrug their shoulders. Oh, right. The kid doesn't talk, do they? They just make weird signals with their hands like they're freezing to death. You can't understand what the hell those signals mean, and even then, you don't really care about learning. It wasn't as if many trolls undertook the time and energy needed to learn an essentially dead language. It wasn't as if any mute or deaf trolls survived for long. So you tell them, "Look, just write what you want to say in the sand, because you could be saying that you have an hour to fucking live and I sure as hell wouldn't know."

So the human plops down in the sand with a noticeable thud and raises their finger to make indentations in the tan surface of it. You watch as they write out, / _I saw an alternate me, and they did horrible things./_

"Really? Thaaaaaaaat's got you spooked? What, did they steal all the candy or some shit-"

They frown and put their hand up in a stop motion. You huff out a breath, but let them finish writing, moving behind them to get a better look at what they were saying. / _The alternate me killed every single friend and family member I have, and before the skeleton man pushed me here, I was thinking of doing that too./_ How a kid can keep such a steady hand and fit all that one a small stretch of sand is beyond you, but you guess that's just how things go. That makes more sense, that this apparently murderous version of themselves exists and that they nearly turned into them. Still, not exactly something that ranks high on your list of things to worry about.

"Well, you didn't kill anyone. Alright? You didn't kill your friends or family, so no worries- that's just another timeline of you. It's not you, and now never will be you."

They shake their head, looking down at the sand and erasing what they wrote. Then they write, / _But I have killed people before. Every single run of the Underground, every time I reset, there was always at least one monster I forgot. I'm tired. I was awful, and all because I couldn't be bothered to spare a monster that was killing me a few more times than normal./_

"Kid, you act as if you're the only person who's ever had to kill anyone trying to come for their throats. It's not aaaaaaaas uncommon as you think. Hell, just look at me!" You say, gesturing to yourself. "I did some pretty shitty things in the past too, and you know what? It doesn't matter anymore, because hey, I made it all right. So what if I killed some people? They didn't matter in the grand scheme of things. They weren't my friends."

Then you pause, because written in the sand is, / _I've killed a friend before, too. Have you?/_

You don't know how exactly you're supposed to answer that, because damn, way to get straight to the heart of it all kid. Sure, you've killed countless trolls and monsters, and not regretted a single death, but those were all for good reasons. You killed the trolls to feed your mother. You killed the monsters to farm grist and get you and everyone else further into the game. But what kind of reason could you give for what you did to Tavros? Aradia? And, god, you fucked over Terezi's life permanently. If she hadn't been taught to smell and taste colors, if she had been seen as even a little helpless, she would have been culled. You didn't even think about that consequence, or the fact that you essentially carried out the plans of some slimy pre-form of the big bad himself.

Frisk writes in the sand, / _Before I became friends with Undyne, she would kill me a lot. A whole lot. I didn't know I had to run all the way to Hotland, and after a while, I got so frustrated that I killed her. She was hard to kill, but I did it, and I felt horrible for it. I reset after I saw Dr. Alphys. She was so heartbroken./_

The kid looks like they're trying to hide themself in a black hole of blue fabric, and eventually you sigh, sitting beside the child. You don't like sitting around like this and feeling sorry for past actions that people have forgiven you for- that's why they're in the past, after all. Maybe you're just getting soft, spending so much time around the John human and letting the strain of three years ruling and planning and having irons in the fire that you're starting to deflate around the kid. Or there's always the human disease called friendship. That's always a possibility.

"Kid, you're not the only one in that boat." You eventually say, earning the child looking up at you. "I did some real bad shit when I was a kid- a little older than you, I think. But yeah, I hurt a few friends too, pretty much for life, and I couldn't turn back the clock on it. One was paralyzed, another blinded, and a third dead. But, you know what? That shit's happened, but it's passed now. Things happen, and you're gonna do shit that you're not proud of, but ultimately if you just try to do better then it'll end up not mattering, alright? This Undyne character is alive now, right?" They nod, and you continue, "Then maaaaaaaaybe don't get all sad and melancholy over it? Just stop thinking about being a murderer, because trust me kid, you sure as hell don't look like one."

They sit and just stare at you for a moment, and alright, two can play at this game. You both just stare at each other for a few moments, before Frisk turns back to the sand, erasing the previous words and saying, / _You really, really remind me of Undyne./_

"Yeah, you said that before. What the hell am I even supposed to make of that, that you keep comparing me to some chick you once killed?"

/ _That isn't why. You're like Undyne- you did a few bad things, and maybe even killed someone before, but everyone likes you it looks like. You're a heroine that never gives up./_

You look at the kid for a moment, and debate telling them about how basically everyone has hated you at some point, or how your dancestor ended up being a total whackjob who once screwed everyone over. Hell, you're pretty sure that Karkat still hates your guts for sort of taking over everything from him, and you know for a damn fact that Gamzee hates you for ruining whatever black fling he was trying to start with your moirail. You don't tell them that, though, because they're not trying to hide in any self made void anymore, and instead ask, "What the hell gives you that idea?" They turn to the sand and write,

/ _I can just feel it. You're a good person. In your soul./_

Then the kid turns to you, places a hand on your chest, over the Light symbol, and looks up at you. A moment of solidarity passes, an acknowledgement that this entire interaction was some freaky soul searching thing that for some reason has come and gone, and you decide that's enough moping around and being weird.

You stand up as quickly as possible, watching the human make a sound as you pick them up along with you and hold them up high in the air, making a face at them. "Frisk, you are one weird fucking kid, you know that?" They nod, and you kinda loosen your grip, letting them come closer to your chest so they weren't in danger of falling and breaking their neck. Hey, if you could weather through the weirdness that was John Egbert, that fucking goober, then what was hanging around a human child while shit went down? Besides, Terezi said this job was important, so even if it didn't feel like that at first, you think that maybe you were just a little bit wrong.

Just a smidge, though, because other than this you're pretty much never wrong in your judgement.

"I think I can get used to that."

 _ **= = } Terezi: Get to the main Prospit bubble and make sure that no inane disaster occurs**_

"So what you're saying is, this murderous kid tried to kill our Frisk?"

Your name is TEREZI PYROPE, and from what Aradia says, what you're about to be doing isn't a job that should be taken lightly. She's informed you about what happened with Frisk, and while you're a little worried now because Frisk is with Vriska and your moirail can be kind of callous, there's really no time to change it. You need Aradia there, you're sure- some of what you're Seeing isn't anything that should be done alone.

You hang off of her neck as she nods, looking ahead and frowning a bit, the corners of her lips downturning and bringing her bright red lips a bit closer to you. You're pretty fucking horrible at reading facial expressions- unless an emotion is really strong, you can't smell it, and even then you can't smell the minute changes in placement of someone's mouth or eyes unless they're really close to you. It's part of the reason why you're currently letting her do all the work of flying you around right now- an excuse to better see what she's feeling. That, and you can be a lazy ass when it comes to things that seem like a hassle, like sewing the stuffing back into your scalemates. Then Aradia speaks, pulling you out of your thoughts, "That's not quite all. I've been feeling something… off."

"Off?" You ask, "What the hell do you mean?" This has your attention immediately. After all, if a Time player was saying that something was off about time, then there must have been something really, strangely off.

"I don't know how to explain it, just yet." Aradia admits, and your nose registers the faintest hint of golden caramel scent and rich lemony smells, like some of the baked goods that were sometimes alchemized on the meteor by Rose. Prospit is in the distance, smelling just as you remember from when you were a dreamer there on Prospit. "There's just something very off about the bubbles, and I think you will understand when we enter." For a moment, there's a silence that descends upon you. You hang there for a moment, smelling Prospit slowly coming closer and closer. Then, you decide to see how the paths of fate are doing right then, which path you're going down now and how this timeline will end up.

There are multiple timelines where things are fucked over, with that kid killing multiple people that you all need alive. There are timelines where Dave comes back, and timelines where he doesn't. But most of all, you can see one timeline, one future where you all will step through your Door and into your new universe. This will eventually come to pass, but there are certain things that you need to do to make sure that it does. The biggest goal at the moment was clear, at the very least- find a way to contact the other Calliope.

You feel a force on your back, a little give before you and Aradia are entering the bubble, and then you're descending upon the ground, feet hitting the cobbles there. That's when you start really feeling it, whatever Aradia had felt. Prospit smells the same- but something else isn't the same. Maybe it's the fact that instead of two towers there, on the moon, there are four. Maybe it's because the streets are unnaturally quiet, and above, the skies hold a few dreamers dreaming. Maybe it's because you can't make out their eyes from the ground, and for once, aren't sure whether or not they're dead and have that faint whiff of decay. But that wouldn't make sense, would it? Living dreamselves are firmly in the past, and if there are dreamers, they have to be dead.

Aradia is floating just above the ground, and she seems to be apprehensive, rotten nerves slightly tainting the bright candy apple scent she carries. Eventually she says, "I have to evacuate the dreamers," and flies off, taking to the blue skies above. You nod and begin to walk down the empty street, nose raising to the air. Maybe you can sniff out wherever the ghosts of this bubble are and interrogate them, ask them if they know where this kid is. Your nose catches a familiar whiff of blueberry, stronger than the hints that had appeared before in your life due to an alternate version of yourself ordering a human to fix the timeline, but you can recognize that smell. That's the John human, in all his goofy hood-socked glory, wearing the lemon of Prospit. You go after the scent, and then you come across him.

He's… smaller. You don't understand that at all- your John is about the same age as the rest of you, 16 earth years old, so why this sudden change in height? And god, he's scrawny too, you can feel it as you reach out and grab his arm. It feels like he's never lifted a hammer in his life! You know how he is, usually with some good muscle and quite a bit of pudge around the middle. This is different, for some reason. "Hey, nerd, stop for a second, will you? I know we've had our little spats over your dumb hood and stupid face, but some shit's come up. Where'd you find that Prospit garb anyway?"

Then he turns to you and snatches his arm away, and you smell something sour. Fear. That's the last thing you expect to smell on him, but here is John, smelling alive and fearful, no vague whiff of decay to mark him as a ghost. Then, he talks in a cracking voice, different from what you're used to. "What? Who the hell are you? Wait, shit, _what_ the heck are you?! I thought that Dave said monsters didn't exist!" It seems almost as if this John doesn't remember you. It seems more like he's never met you. What the fuck?

You look into the future, into the timeline where he comes from, but beyond this dreambubble, there's nothing. This John shouldn't be here- this John is from three years ago, and he's from a timeline where Prospit will be destroyed by Jack with him dying in it. But instead, here he is, a past self in the present, and he isn't even a time player. He shouldn't be here, and that timeline shouldn't be overlapping with this one.

"Okay, shit, now I have to go through this entire spiel again?" Honestly, if you didn't have an entire bubble to evacuate and a kid to kick to the curb, then you would have loved to troll this asshole in real life for the first time. But your little spades are being stilled for the moment, because before you can properly say anything, you hear someone scream. Your head snaps up and your hand tightens around the human's arm. Then, you're off, running towards the sound and dragging a thirteen year old doomed John along for the ride, ignoring his struggling and fright. You're the physically stronger one anyway, so you doubt his scrawny little ass can break away. Shit, you thought you hated his stupid form before, but this is a new level of disgust you feel. You eventually let go of him when the smell of red hits your nose, candy sweet and putrefying. On the ground is someone who smells lemony and green like a garden, and beside the corpse is that very same version, screaming at it in horror, fainting stinking of decay.

Somehow, you came across Jade's dreamself's corpse (another timeline, not yours, not this John's Jade) and the ghost of that Jade. Really, these ghosts made investigation a lot easier, in your opinion. You ignore the faint smell of vomit that John seems to be keen on expelling and go over to the girl, who isn't quite as tall as she will be in three years, and definitely not as broad shouldered. She's done screaming, but by now it looking at you, looking completely lost as she says, "How…?"

"Okay Jade human, listen up," You say, a frown tugging at your lips. "You need to not flip any shits and fly off the handle. I'm looking for the person who probably just killed you. So what did they look like? Short human kid, blueberry and blackberry striped sweater, murderous screaming heathen of a demon tagging along?" She stares at you stunned as you take your cane out of your strife specibus and tap it on the ground impatiently. She doesn't give you an answer until you say, "Well? Is that them or not?" They nod, and then you turn to where John's currently running off, letting out a breath. Well, fucking rude! You're just trying to figure out what the fuck is going on here, but here this little shit is, running off to maybe find the killer. Or maybe to get away from you, because he thinks you might be a monster. Well, fuck.

You can hear her start to say something, but by this point, you don't really have the fucks to give about this ghost who shouldn't have even known about this bubble until a few years later. You have to find this kid, and fast, before they kill any unlucky living dreamselves that have apparently found themselves here for the time being. How the fuck this is possible is still somewhat of a mystery to you, but that mystery will have to be solved later on, when you aren't having to deal with a threat that could potentially fuck up the timeline if allowed to continue rampaging here. Finding that John would definitely be a start, just to make sure that it was possible that he could help. Vriska has told you about how he could do that windy shit before, right?

You turn on your heel and move in the direction the John went, catching faint whiffs of his natural blueberry scent along the way, leading you on. You keep running, even as things become quieter, nearly deathly so, as dreamers are taken from the skies and taken from the bubble by a candy apple scented fairy up above. Then, you can make out his form, nearly missing it because shit, his clothes smell like everything else on Prospit. If not for the blueberry scent, you might have missed him. You call out to him from afar, "Hey, dipshit! John! I'm not here to hurt you or whatever you seem to think! I'm a friend!"

He turns, you think, or maybe you feel another set of eyes on you. He asks, all confusion and shock and leftover adrenaline, "What? You… know my name?" You nod, affirming for the dunkass that you do in fact know his name, and you wonder how his timeline was different, to have caused his first reaction to be blind running and fear. He hadn't struck you as the type, even as a kid. Maybe it's because he doesn't know much about this dream world.

Then, there's the scent of red and blue and purple, and you recognize that smell, even though you don't recognize the smell of the rotten being tagging along behind them, smelling like rotting lemon and lime candies. That's a Frisk, but they're moving fast, and you aren't even anywhere near John, so your first instinct as you start to run towards him is to yell out the warning of, "Behind you!"

It's too late. By the time time you reach him, he's a corpse on the ground, and the smell of cherry red nearly chokes the smell of blueberries.

You look up at the other Frisk, eyes narrowing in a completely instinctual gesture. You can't see them, but you can sure as hell smell them, and they stare back at you, knife raised and the scent of red growing stronger on their person. You grin, despite yourself, in this golden place, and you think this might mirror somewhere for them. Your cane is separated into the dual swords you normally fight with and you look down at them, smelling something green and flashing on their wrist. That's the point to aim for. "Well kid, you're gonna be causing us a lot of problems in the future, and it doesn't look like you want to stop. I guess my question to you is this-

" _Do you wanna have a bad time?"_

They start to laugh at your words, and you can smell their ego from here. You scrunch up your nose at the smell, commenting, "What's with you, anyway? That ego is starting to stink up the place, and I don't think I've ever had to say that about somewhere with corpses on the ground." They stop laughing, and then the red and blue scent of John is out of your center sense of smell, kicked off to the side somewhere. They really mean business, brandishing that strange red knife. "Well, if you're gonna be like that, guess I don't have a choice. I'm gonna send your ass back to those dinky bubbles of yours now."

They scoff, and then like that, they're already lunging towards you, slashing with their knife. You don't just dodge- you parry with one of your own, and then kick up at the smaller form with your knee. If this kid wasn't a murderous little shit, you might have felt bad for the beating you're about to lay down on them.

You don't have the time to be remorseful about bringing someone to justice though, not when this was so important. You can feel it- this human is a fucking danger, a menace, and it's easy to forget that, since they're so young. You can't forget that, though, not now, not when you have this feeling in your very soul that you just have to win against this little shit and take them out of this place prematurely.

Now, the real battle can finally

 _ **= = } SANS: Go troll this kid.**_

 _hey uh, really flattered that you want to be me, but don't you have another thing to be watching right now? some other epic showdown in a golden place with some skilled fighters or...?_

 _well, alright. if you want to go ahead and be me, who am i to stop you. don't do anything i wouldn't do._

Your name is Sans. Sans the Skeleton. It's a pretty well known fact who you are- with how the Underground is, most people know each other and that means they especially know you. It's just that knowing everyone also had the repercussions of knowing who died.

Now, you're not really here to judge- you mostly watch over the kid and make sure they're not a danger to themselves, and most timelines, Frisk or Chara or Hope or Mercy or whatever their name is on that particular reset tend to be pretty harmless. At most, they killed a Froggit or Icecap while defending themselves, which really, wasn't a crime. It was a bit sad to see their families afterwards, but all in all, the kid who came down was usually pretty alright. That's why when you wake up to yet another reset, you aren't as worried as other times, near the beginning, when you had all those nightmares.

Best not to think about that.

You're out in Snowdin Forest now, though, near the door where the human normally comes through, and you know just what to look for. Your notes help you on that front, detailing anything about the runs before so that you can remember some things that aren't really clear. Hey, even as someone aware as you of time, some things are just lost over so many resets. What isn't lost though, is your entire script, the whole song and dance you do that normally entertains the kids that come.

You glance over the door from your spot in the trees, and then lo and behold, the door is sliding open, just a few minutes late. Oh well, that's liable to happen sometimes. Not every reset sees the human child having as impeccable timing as you. Then, you're absolutely caught off guard when suddenly, there's a child walking out. They definitely aren't what you were expecting.

Here you expected blue and purple, but instead you're greeted with a red striped sweater and long red pants, completely different. The kid is blond, with shades on his face and a ribbon in his hair, which you didn't actually think was possible before because from what it seemed, the human was only able to equip one item at a time. That has to be a sign of something, and you have a small feeling you know what, but you don't dwell on it. You're not here to judge yet.

The kid shivers, opens his mouth, and then speaks, "God fucking dammit it's freezing down here, how the hell does an Underground place have it's own weather system, jesus Christ." That catches you off guard even more, because the human before had been mute, and used sign language. You remember three of the previous humans who were the same way, who didn't say a single word, and this little blond human reminds you of the one with the violet soul and bad eyesight. That's weird, but at the same time…

Well, it's a pretty welcome change, actually. Finally, after so many resets, you're seeing something new, and that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Now, there's really one logical course of action, you think to yourself as you watch the human walk down the snowy path, the kid who you're about _tibia_ little shit to.

Time to troll the shit out of this human.


End file.
